Manipal Marathon 2018: A hint of affirmation towards a positive change.

Roads, in and around the town of Manipalflooded with excitement, energy and enthusiasm, when more than 6000 people took to the roads to make the lazy Sunday morning on February 11,an industrious one.

The idea of organizinga marathon was initially initiated by the “Manipal Runner’s Club” in the year 2016. With the tag line “Drug freeis the way to be”,mainly aimed at bringing about a social change, the run was organized for the second consecutive year, the first being in 2017. Inspired by the turnout of last year, one more category “5k timed run” was added this year, besides other three categories;Half Marathon(21 KM) ,10KM timed run, and 5KM and 3KM fun run) of last year. These categories were further divided into three sub-categories for different age groups each, of the participants.The sub-categories ranged from age group of 10 to 56 years and above.

The half marathon was the first to begin, with runners getting off the mark at 6’o clock in the morning from the noisy KMC Greens. Runners in this category almost covered the entire proximity ofManipal. The route navigated throughDodangudde, Kodankur, Udupi,MaruniVeethika and Rudrapriya Nagar. Followed by them were the 10 KM runners, who ran through the DC office, VM office, DoddenGudde andKunjibettu. The third highest Runners in the timed category“5 KM” escaped through the areas around town, the DC’s office being the landmark.The Manipal Marathon Race was backed by the support of as many as 85 students of SOAHS School of Applied Health Sciences) deployed at each water point along the route. Besides them entire race was looked after by Manipal Police to prevent any untoward incident.

Cash prizes in various categories were awarded to the winners by the distinguished guests of the day, which included Dr. Narayan Sabahit (Registrar, MIT), Shri. Kishor Alva (Executive Director), Dr. Surendra Shetty (Pro vice Chancellor, MAHE), Sri. SatishKamath (Assistant Director, IT), Dr. HS Ballal (Pro Chancellor, MIT), Shri K RaghupatiBhat (Ex-MLA),Poornima (Pro vice Chancellor Health Science)

Winners of various categories were among the happier lot of the day. Kantilal, who bagged the first prize in men’s 21.1KM (open category) received an amount of Rupees 75,000 which was confirmed earlier when he hit the finishing line in “1hr 10min” sweating and panting but smiling in satisfaction, followed by him was Manchodari bagging the second prize and a cash prize of Rupees 10,000 in the same category. Third prize in the category was bagged by Rudrappa.

The second prize winner of men’s 21 KM(open category) said “ Even though I am a government servant at Railways, I have been running professionally for past 7-8 years.” This was my first 21 KM run and am happy to win a medal in my first attempt itself, he expressed.

Replying to a question he confirmed that diet is an important part of an athlete’s life and he is going to spend the prize money on ensuring the maintenance of his athleticism.

The sponsors of the Marathon were Adani, Syndicate Bank and Vodafone. The entire event also had the backing of voluntary Services Organization (VSO), a Manipal based voluntary services organization.

It was the display of true sportsmanship and a hint of affirmation towards a positive change as well.

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