The Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) organized the second edition of its Chennai Trail Marathon (CTM) at the Northern outskirts of the city, on Sunday. In total 1,057 runners from across South India and abroad participated including 64 in the full marathon, 410 in the half marathon, 468 in the 10K run and 115 children in the kids run. Heavy rains in the early morning transformed the off road trail into a slushy mud track making the run extra challenging. At the same time, the chill, drizzly climate through the morning proved to be a blessing for the runners. The oldest runner was 67, while the youngest participant was just 3 years old. Over forty less privileged kids from the Anbu Illam and Child Home orphanages participated along with the other kids. The venue for the marathon was GOJAN School of Business and Technology. More than 100 volunteers worked hard behind the scenes to organize this run.
The aim of the trail marathon is to take runners out of their usual city surroundings to a more scenic natural location and run on an off road dirt track which provides an extra challenge. The location of the run was fixed as the scenic Cholavaram Tank near Red Hills – a vast lake surrounded by a beautiful, wide 10km long running track. The marathon is part of CTC’s ongoing drive to spread awareness on a more active and healthy lifestyle through sports. Last year CTC organized its maiden trail marathon at Buckingham Canal in South Chennai in which 500+ runners participated. The next major event is planned for December 15 – The Iron Triathlon – a unique event in India where participants will have to complete 3.9 km of swimming, 180 km of cycling followed by a full marathon of 42.2km running.