“The very first rays of hope shone and the crops turned GOLD!”
Running through that muddy trail, Birds flying high and Kaveri flowing
free with my thoughts…
And suddenly with these realizations, time stood still, the prologue and
the epilogue dint really matter…
But for the sake of this story, lets rewind…
Three of us, Bopanna (An avid runner), Srikara (Runner, Trekker and
Advanced Yoga practitioner) and me (runner, dreamer, and crazy metaphor writer)
set out for the Half Marathon organized in its 11th year by “Runners
for life”.
Starting next to the Ranganathittu bird sanctuary, this beautiful trail
inspires one to actually spread the wings wide enough to take the challenge, go
the distance and come out a winner. I believe that’s why when I heard about
this, I could convince myself to get ready for the half marathon on this trail different
from every other running experience I had so far.
The paddy and the sugarcane fields running parallel to the clatter of
the Kaveri tributary canal gives you such a wide spectrum view of the nature’s
bounty that you leave mesmerized, sometimes run through more inspired and
sometimes just stand still, awestruck, lost and not to be found till you get
reminded of the running time by the passing runners.
We crossed the finish line at different times. Bopanna with his 1:54:03 timing
giving us life goals for running and our tired feet dipped in cold Kaveri
waters, flowing through times gave us just another moment out of our stressed
city lives…
To sum it all up, here are the closing lines from my social media status
updates:
“The smiles are not just for the
glory we achieved by crossing the finish line, they are for how strong we grew
on the way”…
