Pune International Marathon.

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nitinjamdar

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Dec 7, 2008, 11:29:49 AM12/7/08
to runnersforlife-bangalore
Hi,

We happened to be in Pune over this weekend. On the way, on Mumbai -
Pune expressway we saw big Vodafone hoarding announcing the Vodafone
Pune International Marathon for Sunday 7th December. Since we were
going to be there anyway, I decided to go and watch the race.

The Saturday newspapers did not contain any time or route map of the
race. I enquired with friends and I was told the general route and
that the race will start at 7 am on Sunday.

Around 8.30 am Sunday morning, I switched on the local TV station
broadcasting live from the starting point. Mr. Kalmadi, President of
the Indian Olympic Association was present on the dais. He invited Ms.
Priyanka Chopra to give a speech and flag off the race. She spoke on
Mumbai terror attacks, Mumbai heroes and need to run for unity. Ms
Chopra, prefixed her speech with a statement that she is daughter of a
Fouzi. She flagged off a race and waved to the crowd and the crowd
walked past her and waved back. The commentators took over and started
describing the event occasionally telling us about Mumbai heroes.
There was neither any reference to the full marathon nor any body
showed the international runners.

Not sure what was happening, still we decided to go to the place where
we were told that marathon would pass i.e. the road from Khadki where
it nears the Pune University circle. It was traffic as usual on both
sides of the road. Saw a group of kids with drums led on the footpath
to a road corner. We went ahead and asked a police man whether this
was the route for the marathon runners. He said Yes, it is and it will
take them 30-40 minutes more. Traffic continued and everybody went on
with his or her daily business.

We went ahead for few minutes and suddenly saw an international runner
weaving his way through traffic on the other side of the road. There
was no escort car, no timer car nor any sort of vehicle escorted him.
He was entirely on his own. The pavement did not have any barricade
nor there was any crowd. The traffic continued past him, Auto-
rickshaws, cars, motorbikes, cycles and buses .The bus ahead of the
runner stopped to pick up the passengers, the runner swerved and
overtook the bus from the side. There were no signs. No water
stations...

Few more runners followed and the police standing there told the cars
to drive on the edge of the road.The runners ran with traffic along
side them. The runners went past the boys who by then had started
beating the drums. I could hear somebody from the pavement shout with
dismay ‘Idiots, at least stop the traffic’

The President of India was in the city on Sunday. Later on during the
day,entire traffic, we included in it, was stopped for 30 minutes for
letting the president’s cavalcade pass.

Just wanted to share what I saw.


Nitin Jamdar
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