Kudos to CII & Yi for conducting the Trichy Marathon 2018. It was conducted in Boston Marathon style with only the best runners being recognized in the Men and Women section. But runners in Boston Marathon have to fulfill certain criteria. They need to provide an evidence of having run a full marathon in three and a half hour to qualify for this event.
Alas! this Marathon had no selection criteria and the assemblage was from five year old to septuagenarians (70 years). How could you expect these two extremes to beat out the robust twenty year old? I believe that these categories should have been recognized at least for their effort.
In the medley I noticed two people, very young at heart. Mr Jayaraj is seventy years old and hails from Kumbakonam. He had come to Trichy specifically for this event and completed a 21k run. He has already given permission to the Pondicherry JIPMER hospital to take his organs after his demise.
The other gentleman is our own Trichy hero. Mr Ramasubramaniam, a retired General Manager from ONGC. He is 68 years young. When I asked him how he felt after the completing 21k, he quipped – “it’s just a half marathon. Last month I ran a complete marathon in Hyderabad.”
These are the unsung heroes of yesterday’s event. They can be a huge inspiration for the youngsters.I have a humble request, that the people of different age groups are appreciated for their effort in future marathons / sports events.
Let us also appreciate Trichy Athma hospital, which conducted a 5k Charity Run last week for giving away prizes in many categories, though they were not heavily sponsored.
I have two suggestions:
- There is a term called BYOD – which means ‘bring your own device’. Computer geeks understand this and take their own laptop to the conferences. Why can’t we also have ‘BYOW – bring your own water’? Twenty years ago, we used to carry our own water but have become lazy since then. Can we go back to our old ways and strap a water bottle around us instead of littering the road with plastic and paper cups in the name of running a marathon?
- Dr B M Hegde suggested, we have run for heart, liver, kidney and breast, but we don’t have any run for ‘NIDS – Nutritional Insufficiency and Deficiency Syndrome.’ Most of the people in the world die because of a disease called ‘poverty’ (lack of nutrition). But no one creates awareness for the same, as poverty (nutrition) does not attract sponsorship the way heart, liver, kidneys and breast do. Can like minded people get together and think of a RUN purely to create awareness and totally devoid of business objectives?
Can conscientious citizens wake up?
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