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issue 6 september-october 2005
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Headlines : calendar of events
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Team eyeway runs a marathon in Delhi

Organised on October 16, the Hutch-Delhi Half-Marathon saw a tremendous response; people came from many parts of the globe to take part. George Abraham, C.E.O. of Score Foundation, was also one of the runners. He recounts his experience.

I wanted to run the marathon because I saw an opportunity to raise funds for the organisation. That, I confess, was my initial thought. But my boyhood passion was also egging me on. I had been an athlete in school and college; running had always been a passion with me. And this opportunity to run, to indulge my passion, was too good to miss. I was a bit apprehensive too. At the age of 46, not having run for several years, would I be able to run at all?

The fact that I had been following a daily regimen of exercise and morning walks gave me some confidence. I knew was I physically fit to try running the marathon. I was quietly confident, but not quite confident!

At eyeway, we started our fund-raising efforts from September 23. We e-mailed 10,000 to 15,000 people, asking them to donate for the run. On the eve of the marathon, we had raised over Rs. 2.5 lakh, thanks to our various donors. Bausch & Lomb, in fact, donated Rs. 1 lakh.

A week before the event, we got a call from N.D.T.V. The channel had received our e-mail, and decided to focus on eyeway as well as my preparations for the marathon as their run-up coverage for the event. On October 14, the crew turned up at Noida Stadium at 5 a.m. in the morning to shoot me in action -- doing my laps. Then they came home with me and filmed me while I was exercising. That evening, I was interviewed regarding why I was participating in the marathon, my preparations and other details.

This telecast started that very day, from 7.30 in the evening and continued, at regular intervals, till 10 a.m. the next morning. It gave eyeway's efforts for the marathon good exposure.

Sunday morning, October 16, 2005. The day of the marathon dawned crisp and clear. The six-member eyeway team met outside Kent's restaurant in Defence Colony. A group photograph later, we set off for the venue, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

It seemed like the whole world had turned up for the event. We edged our way to the starting blocks, negotiating the sea of humanity, and marvelling at the enthusiasm and 'raring-to-go' spirit of the would-be runners.

The run started at 9.20 a.m. Kapil Dev, Daley Thompson and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore flagged off the crowd.

And what a dense crowd it was. For almost a kilometre, we had to satisfy ourselves with walking briskly, rather than running, because we had to weave through so many people. Finally, a friend, Santosh Babu, and I could start running. Our idea was that we would run -- and walk to rest and catch our breath -- together.

To my delight, we discovered that we hardly needed to rest. We ran the stipulated 7 k.m. in 55 minutes, without much panting and sweating! We knew we were good for another 5 k.m.

We took part in the 7-k.m. Great Delhi Run. The two other categories were the 4.3-k.m. Senior Citizen Run, and the 21-k.m. Half-Marathon.

It felt good to be running. After many years, it was nice to feel the wind on my face and the ground melting away beneath my feet. If possible, I would definitely go on more runs like this.

Everybody in Team eyeway finished the run. Pranay ran a little bit and then walked. Deepti and Lorraine walked the distance. A cousin, Rahul Varghese, ran the entire 21 k.m.; he was in better shape that the rest of us. He actually travels around the world, running marathons. My daughter, Neha, too ran with us. In fact, she beat me by 10 minutes!

After we finished, we sat down on the steps in the Stadium; had some water and biscuits. We sat there for about an hour, but Pranay didn't turn up. That was worrying. So we walked back, tracing the route of the run, but could not see him anywhere. At about 2.30 p.m., Pranay called to say that he did reach the stadium, but he decided to head home when he saw the crowd. Now Team eyeway was all accounted for. We all felt it had been an exhilarating event.

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