Ramanagara Marathon in India

My most memorable experience while in India was running the Ramanagara Marathon (11K distance) on February 1, 2015.
The purpose of the Ramanagara Marathon was to  promote organ donation and child abuse awareness in India. My friend Sunaina Ravindra suggested the run to me since we both enjoy running.
The race organizers offered online registration, bib pickup, and charter bus transportation from Bangalore. Online registration was a challenge (as their online payment system did not accept credit cards from outside of India). We made special arrangements with the race organizers to pay at bib pick up. To further complicate things, we made arrangements for Sunaina's friend to pick up our bibs. The admission fee was approximately the equivalent of $7 USD.
On race day, we woke up at 4:30 am and took a Rickshaw to the bus station to meet the charter bus to the race. The bus picked us up at 5:15 am and we arrived at Ramanagara at around 6 am.

 

We found Sunaina and Balaji who gave us our bibs and packets which included a small drawstring backpack and a race shirt. Balaji is wearing the race shirt in the above photo.

It was cold, dark and foggy before the sunrise. Once the sun started to rise, the start line was a band of drum performers symbolizing the start of the race.

Start Line

We enjoyed a beautiful run that included the beautiful countryside of Ramanagara

Family of Spectators

 

Water stop along the race course

At the finish line, we received our medals and certificates of participation.

 

Although there were water stops along the race course, as outsiders, we were advised to only drink bottled water. We brought 1 bottle of water each to the race which we drank while on the race course. In the US, we usually receive granola bars and bananas at the finish line. In India, curry and/or other traditional Indian dishes were served. We needed to get back to our hotel, but the charter bus we took wasn't scheduled to leave for another 2-3 hours. We hitchhiked our way back to our hotel with a wonderful, kind, and generous family. We will always be thankful for this act of kindness.

On a very sad note, while we were leaving the race, we saw an ambulance behind us at one point. The next day we found out that one of the participants died of massive cardiac arrest. He was only 27-years-old. Read the entire article here.