The Strides of Hope is a unique event- probably the first of its kind. It is a 48 hrs endurance run organized by the running community of Bangalore to encourage more and more of its citizens to take up a healthy and environment friendly lifestyle. The event in itself will be a 48 hour continuous run by various runners around parks and popular roads in Bangalore. This is also an effort to raise awareness about education for the underprivileged children in India by raising money for Asha. The run starts at Ulsoor lake on Friday 19th Feb at 4PM and will end on Sunday 21st Feb at 4PM in Lal Bagh covering EGL(Embassy Golf Link) and Cubbon Park in between. The idea came from Santosh Padmanabhan who plans to run/walk the entire 48 hrs. He has the experience of doing about 156Kms in 24 hours at the 2008 Bangalore Ultra and is now challenging himself to go much beyond! Runners are expected to join in and give him company at various points and/or times which willd efintiely increase the awareness of running in the city. Participants who do not want to run can of course walk or even cycle.
When I first heard of this event a week before the Auroville race I immediately felt I had to participate and impulsively decided to run at EGL through Saturday(20th Feb) night. Later it occurred to me that maybe I can even attempt a 24 hours run/walk from Saturday 4PM and test the limits of my endurance. Crazy thouhght immediately frowned upon by family members but then running like any other addiction can drive one to do crazy stuff. That is another reason why I took it easy at Auroville. Now with just about one and a half days to go before Saturday afternoon things are a bit uncertain. I have come down with a medium severity cold and may be heading for a light fever. However, I am very keen on participating and am doing whatever I can do get better including salt water gargling 2-3 times a day. Depending on how I feel Saturday AM I might end up doing the originally planned 12 hours. However bad I feel healthwise I am certain to be around providing support to the participants of this unique event. I also wish Santosh the very best in this endeavour !
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