CATS: Photo Gallery: Chandigarh Marathon 2010

Sunday, 31st of Jan'10; a morning of immense pride for CATS. This was the day for which 52 CATS had registered to participate in the Chandigarh Marathon being organised for the first time. While 10 CATS had registered for the half marathon, rest of the 42 had signed up for the 5kms run.

Rajpal was the first one to arrive, Vandna and Gagandeep I could not spot, Gopika had to pick up Rita, Jyotika struggled to park her scooter, Guneet dropped her pins for the Bibs and Sunaina could not find me... we had a fun start for the 21kms half marathon segment ;-)

In the chaos that awaited CATS, 8 of us were pressed hard

against the rope at the flag off point whist

the Sun had yet to wake up from the slumber!

This is how the half marathon began at 7am!!!

Mummy..... :(

One kilometer down the road, the rush had thinned out,

giving some breathing space to the feline brigade :)

CAT Gagandeep runninghis 4th half marathon waving across

the road to us, who were moving at a leisurely pace

towards the 2km point :)

here comes CAT Rajpal, who was also nearly 500 meter ahead of us by now already!

Life is not about what we dont have, but about making the most of what we do...

Hats of to this Sardar Ji... he's waving with his left hand as he no longer has a right one..

INSPIRATION personified.

We had done 12kms by now and are in front of sukhna Lake by now.

Whilst we were happy being clicked from the front...

the two camera men right behind us were happy capturing the moment of

runners and our photographer :)

Just beyond 13kms point came the roundabout dividing sector 5 and sector 8..

the Governor's residences roundabout... School kids cheering the runners with great din...

ahem.. they were actually more interested in getting photographed..

all in the name of good fun :)

It was a pleasant surprise to run into Anita, the leader of the running group in Delhi.

Anita and all her running friends had taken great care of CATS

when we had gone there in Nov for Delhi Half Marathon..

Anita and her husband were holding the fort opposite the Golf Club.

We were enjoying ourselves so much that we gave two hoots

to maintain the decorum worthy of our age!

Guneet demanded that they play a nice perky tune, which they promptly did..

it surely added fire to our spirits.. Thank You Kids :)

I mean, does it actually look that we are even attempting to run??!!!

The only guy running is a 42kms Marathon runner on his last leg

while us half marathoners were 'walking' merrily towards our destination :)

The whole Kishangarh village had lined up to greet CATS.. ok the runners!!

Go Guneet Go ;-)

but it was nearly 9.45am by now and we were hungry as hell...

so we grabbed the oranges and energy drinks from the water/sustenance tables laid out along the way.

Gopika cant even smile as the chocolate would fall out

if she dared to adjust her teeth ;-)

hang on though... we were NOT the last ones!!!!

kadam kadam barraaye ja... khushi ke geet gaye ja :)

Yippie... 16 down :)

yupp.... running away from the sun glaring at our backs by now.. it was 10.05am

The 5km pack of CATS of all shapes and sizes getting assembled

at the starting line in the meantime.

Just as the 5kms race had begun with CAT Harpreet and CAT Hari enjoying themselves...

Their jaw dropped as they saw CAT Gopika finishing off her

21kms race to join the twosome of CAT Rajpal and CAT Gagandeep :)

OK, some may have finished but we had a task at hand..

CAT Aditi and CAT Neerja running their way along the lake path...

All jokes aside, running is serious business and pushing yourself

beyond a limit can land you in the ambulances too...

By 10.15am, even the 5km runners had started to run back to the finishing line..

CAT Rachna and CAT Riyaal yapping their way to glory :)

Aah.. given that we were so busy interacting with friends and strangers

alike on the path, the lack of clear directions about the finishing line for 21km runners did not help either!

Rita, Gopika, Guneet and I happily ran into a gate but could not find

the beeping mat which records our timings. On looking around we noticed

everyone was wearing 5kms Bibs. When we asked around

where the mat for 21kms was, no one had a clue.

One guy even suggested that the 21kms race is yet to begin!!!

We ran back towards the main road where someone took pity on us and

directed us towards the 21kms finishing line mat!

Finally we had crossed the finishing line of 21kms and got our medals :)

While the other 21km runners had queued up at various

counters for certificates, timing chips etc., I tried to

look for our fellow 5km runners in this long serpentine queue.

The only downside of having half marathon and 5km run overlap

is that all of us could not meet :(

Struggle to get Rs.200/- back after handing over the timing chips...

CAT Rajpal owes us all a party after finishing his race in 2hrs.12mins! (2nd half marathon)
CAT Gagandeep came a close second with 2hrs.26mins. (4th half marathon)
CAT Jyotika came third with 2hrs.40mins (brilliant performance for a first timer!)
Thanks to the confusion about the finishing gate, CAT Rita, CAT Guneet,

CAT Supreet, CAT Gopika and CAT Sunaina finished in around 3hrs.17mins.
CAT Vandna also ran but her timings are unavailable.