Kamal Dham, an employee of an IT firm participated in the fun run with his entire family. His twins, Nipun and Navya, both fifth graders, had been practising for the event for a couple of weeks. "This was my second marathon. It felt really good to participate with my family members," he said.
The Mathias had come to the event, to cheer their 13-year-old daughter who was participating. "We have introduced our daughter to the run at a young age so that she supports causes like these and also remains fit," said the parents.
Among the usual participants were also those who had come solely for winning. One such candidate was Sudhamani, who won the full marathon in the women's category. She had specially come from Coimbatore to participate in the marathon. A college student, she participates in at least four marathons in a year.
Tripurari Singh, an army personnel won the first prize in the men's category. Hailing from UP, Singh runs for 30 kms everyday to keep himself fit.
Virendra Singh came down from Hyderabad for the run. Dressed in a Spiderman outfit, he was there to support his cause- Men's rights. "It is not necessary that we all run for the cause that the marathon organisers support. I am here to represent those dad's who have been separated from their children," he said.
Beth is a teacher at Delhi Public School. She's been in Bangalore for five months and is soon going back to California, where she's from. Attending the marathon with her friend JP (who works at a music academy here), who is also from California, they decided to run for the fun of it. "I found the marathon details online and decided to sign the both of us up for it," says Beth, who is running the 10k marathon.
Beth followed quite a rigorous routine to prepare for the marathon, since this was the first time she's running one. "I followed a 10 km running regime for about eight weeks. Four days a week of running, one day a week of cross running and two days of rest. I slowly built up the distance as I progressed through my training," she says.
"Bangalore's very different from where we're from. It's a really interesting city and all of the people have been really friendly and helpful, and that's made it quite easy for us. I don't know if I'll be coming back anytime soon, but I'd like to come back definitely," she laughs.
Abhishek Uppala, Anisha Aliar and Rajan Bhutani attended the marathon together, along with their friend Vamshi, who was there to just support them, while they ran. "He was actually just bored at home. So he decided to tag along and watch us," says Abhishek.
A regular marathoner, this was Abhishek's third run of the year. "TCS World 10 km run was the last one I did this year. I also ran for a marathon conducted by the gym where I train. My friends and I have been wanting to participate in a marathon for a while. So we looked for something that's happening in December. We found two - Bangalore Ultra on December 9 and this one. But Bangalore Ultra was too hectic, they only had 25 km and 40 km, which I couldn't have done. So, we decided to do the 10 km one here," said Abhishek, an investment banker.
Anisha, who had come down from Cochin especially for the marathon, said, "I've done a 5 km run before, just last week, and that was my first run. I decided to come here because I didn't have anyone who would run with me back in Cochin."
Rajan Bhutani is not much of a runner. "I usually wake up around 10 am everyday. So there's no scope for practising my running. This is my first marathon, let's see how this will turn out," he said.
"The only time he runs is when his girlfriend chases him," butts in Abhishek.
Anil Jalali, who works at IBM, was attending the marathon with his wife and two daughters. While the daughters had just completed their 5 km run, the parents were yet to start. "We run quite regularly, not for any particular cause as such. We just run for the fun of it. It's good from a health point of view as well," says Anil.
While his wife was warming up for her 10 km run, Anil took care of the kids. Once she completed her run, Anil started prepping for his full marathon run for 42 km, while the rest of his family cheered him on.