India Running!

The legend of Philippedes has it that he ran from Marathon to Athens to declare the victory over the Persians. This happened in 490 BC.  Last week a population of 1 plus billion people from an even older civilization produced a gold medal winner at the 400 M world junior athletic event for the first time and the whole country went into frenzy.

However the followers of Philippedes are a plenty in India and it has become more of a fad than a sport. As one might be aware, barring one sport nothing else is revered as a sport in India. Almost every city in India has more than a couple of branded Marathon events all the year around. I happened to ‘witness’ (A recent survey says we are the largest sporting event ‘viewers’ in the world) one this week which started and finished close to my house in Chennai.

Went there to check on a friend who claimed to be a marathoner and me being the doubting Thomas wanted to go by the seeing is believing principle and I had my reasons for that, knowing him for long now, his closest association with the word RUN during college days was with a Hotel by the name RUNS in Adyar. Was amazed at the size and splendor of the event. Close to 5000 odd people sweating it out, some sprinting, some gracefully cantering and some even ‘selfieing’ their way in, while a few others limped to the finish to be greeted to the sounds of ‘chenda melam’ and egged on by a handful of lazy onlookers like yours truly and proud family members of the descendants of Philippedes armed with the latest Phone cameras and DSLR’s to capture their moment of glory. What further amazed me was the accessories that the runners where adorned with apart from good running shoes some were strapped with the latest fitbit and the likes monitoring their vitals as they made through this gruesome endurance challenge. Some ran barefoot too. Some hydrated themselves with water from PET bottles while some sipped from long pipes hanging over their shoulders. I was later informed by a well-informed runner friend that particular gadget was called a camelback. A water pouch that one can carry on his or her back with a sipper to keep hydrated.

Mercedes Benz as one of the lead sponsors had displayed large Digital Timers on the roof of their cars at the finish lines so that the runners could see their timing and also kindle that urge in you to own the coveted brand, for which, you need to run a different race though.

Marathon for sure is not for the weak hearted and calls for skills that revolve around endurance, focus and monk like concentration; this has now opened up an entire tribe of life coaches / Management gurus drawing parallels with marathons and emphasizing that these very skills will take you to the top at your workplaces. Sadly none of these Management gurus give you gyan on how to make it big, taking up running itself as a profession.

It’s an irony that in India many take to Marathons once they are secure and successful in life unlike the Ethiopians or the Kenyans or the Mo Farahs who went on to make it big for themselves and their country running for a livelihood.

Marathons are run every second day across the country for various causes which is certainly good, however wish one could be run to promote the spirit of sport as a profession and not only as a fitness fad and thereby help in producing at least one marathoner or an athlete from India who could make it big on the world stage.