Stroll in the park in CWDR 2012

The Contours Women's day run has now become part of the running calendar in Bangalore.  The event usually has 10K and  5K runs - this year there were shorter distances too. The first edition was held around the Ulsoor lake in 2010. Last year (which I skipped) was at Clarkes Exotica - a resort  on the way to the International airport. The 3rd edition was held on 4rth March at Kanteerva stadium/Cubbon Park.  Being in the middle of my break from running(see previous post) I was not planning to run in this event. However, I still wanted to participate in support of the event as well as the NGOs benefitting from it. Chandra Gopalan the organiser of this event is a good friend and veteran runner passionate about promoting fitness and running in general and among women in particular. I convinced all my family members to participate in the 5Km and registered myself, my wife Asha, son Rahul and daughter Ritika barely a few hours before the registration closed.  While Rahul was planning to run 5K the rest of us were going to take a walk in Cubbon Park.

Asha,Rahul and myself(Ritika dropped out of the event  at the last minute to go on an excursion with some ex-colleagues ) left home around 630am and reached Kanteerva at 7am on 4rth morning. Musical warm up was going on - I spotted Vishy and Ravi with their kids. Pankaj showed up after completing one lap as part of his 10K to do the 5K with his kids. This year's event had over 1200 participants across all categories.

The race start just after 715am . Rahul took off at his usual pace trying to squeeze his way through the crowd. Asha and I walked pretty much the entire distance enjoying the nature and fresh air of Cubbon Park. Though I have run here several times - see Cubbon Park weekend - I thoroughly enjoyed the leisurely stroll. I stopped to take several pictures and chatted with a few other walking runners along the way. The route took us past the Sheshadri memorial Central library , KSLTA  center and Bal Bhawan . Asha and I completed the walk in about 56 minutes while Rahul took 32 minutes for his run. Met several other runners in the finish area  including Naresh and Sridhar from the Chaitanya Samarpan gang.We returned home by 9am after collecting our certificates.

start of the 5K

The 5K route



Contours International Adidas Women's day run

I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout for this run last Sunday organised by Contours International in support of Intenrational Women's day. There seemed to be over 500 runners participating in either 5K or 10K at Ulsoor Lake. Probably the convenience of the central location was one contributing factor. The run conducted by Runners for Life required 10K participants to do 3 loops around the Ulsoor lake starting and finishing in the Home Guards ground. I rode to the venue in the Red Dragon - we reached there just in the nick of time. The run started a few minutes after 630am before my Garmin could link up with the satellite. It was nice to run around the Ulsoor Lake after a long time specially with traffic blocked on one line. A few years ago RFL used to conduct its long runs quite regularly at this venue and I have actually done 11 laps around the lap ie 39K  in preparation for a marathon. This run reminded me of those early days of RFL runs.  I ran at a easy pace. My Garmin started working towards the end of Loop 1 after about 2.5Km. I ran a bit with Rishi and quite a lot with Srinivas. En route in the 3rd loop I saw my cousin Raji walking and also ger daughter Indu jogging. I completed the 10 K in approximately 53 minutes without sweating at all - this is 4-5 minutes slower than my performance in the 2009 Sunfeast 10K. Met with a lot of runners in the ground at the finish point and also my cousin and her daughter. It was great to see so many new faces there as well. Congrats to Ravi Shankar, Amrita, Neera and Pani for their podium finishes! Returned home after a hearty and boisterous breakfast at Konark. Overall it was a nice enjoyable morning. Click here for some photographs of the event.

Post run group photo