Auroville Marathon:

At last, 8 months after starting to run, I have completed my first official half marathon at the event conducted by Auroville on its 40th anniversary. A big thanks to Chennai Runners, who has a big chunk in making a runner out of me, especially to Ram, Hari, Ramesh, Vidyuth and Narayanan. I knew Auroville will be a fantastic place to run and I had been training for the past two weeks for that. The travel from chennai was arranged by Karthik and we had a comfortable journey to Auroville and reached around 5.30. Auroville as expected was a serene and so pleasant. The food and stay was comfortable and the arrangement was great.

The race started by 7.00 the next morning. Ram started his Full marathon quest an hour earlier than us. It was the first trail that I am running outside chennai and it was exquisite and challenging. 90% of the run was on forest and barren lands. The uneven surface very challenging to run. I started my run very slowly, infact I was the last one to start from the start line. I continued at the same pace for about 40 minutes. I increased my pace after the first water point and I could lot strong runners struggling in the uneven surface. Good that I paced down myself initially. The volunteers were fantastic and crowds at the water point were great. Though I had a couple of walking breaks in between, I finished the run in 2.36 hrs, which is a pretty good one to me. I am sure, if at all I attend the next Auroville marathon I will be attempting a full.

A very satisfying and enjoyable run for me. The above photo says it all.