Hyderabad Marathon 2009

The 2nd edition of Hyderabad Half and Full marathon held on 30th August 2009 seems to have lived upto the high expectations and was a smashing success. Of course, with passionate and experienced runners like Rajesh Vetcha spearheading the organization this was not surprising. It looks like this event will now be the one to mark the beginning of the distance running season in India. Unfortunately, I missed it this year due to bein down with flu the week prior to the event. However, I definitely hope to run it next year. Runners from Bangalore did very well in the race with AKS finishing first among amateurs with timing of 3:32 and Deepak Mhasvade following suit with his personal best of 3:43. Manoj Bhat also did his personal best in 3:51 narrowly missing the 3rd position. Click here for the full results of the event.

Unfortunately, I missed the event this year due to being down with flu the week prior to the event. However, I definitely plan to run it next year and am hoping to do my first sub-4 finish in India in that event.

Following are email comments from a couple fo participants in this year's race:

Mail from ANS – a Bangalore based runner who came 1st in the full marathon among amateur runners:

Thanks everyone for a wonderful weekend.It doesn't get better than this..To the organisers for staging an event that was remarkable in many ways:

- great course with never a dull moment

- rollicking initial stretch in cool weather, barren stretches under harsh sun, some cool campuses, a university maze that didn't seem to have an exit and a grand finish in an international stadium. - course well marked with freshly painted arrows almost every 10m (curious to know how this was done. It would have taken an awful lot of effort to manually paint more than 4000 arrows for the FM course)

- well stacked aid stations every 2km with km marker and additional km markers where it is most needed - towards the end.

- greeting finishers with medal and certificate immediately on finishing.- to Ganesh in particular for the great hospitality and making outstation runners like us feel 'elite'.

- finally for recognizing the growing category of fun runners and surprising us with prizes

Mail from Rishikesh – a Bangalore based runner who co-ordinated accommodation at Hyderabad for a number of Bangalore runners

We will like to thank you for hosting us with so much of personal touch. We had an absolutely rocking weekend in Hyderabad. That was possible due to the fact that we didn't have to bother about our stay and most of the commute. The dorm was very comfortable and we were at home.The bus which took us to KBR park for the start gave us the feel of international atheletes. The route was beautiful and the aid station and volunteers were great. The finish line was well managed where every finisher was made to feel like a winner with a 100 mt dash on the Olympic style track amongst cheer from the crowd and medal with Camera and Video time for each.