Volunteering at SeaFair Marathon for Ekal Vidyalaya
 Run Forrest Run! (Click for album) |
Around half a dozen volunteers from HY went to help organise the SeaFair marathon. The marathon is a huge operation. Around 26 miles of course that needs to kept safe for the runners. The WA-520 bridge was closed too for the marathon.
We were stationed at different intersections as ‘course marshalls’. Course marshalls keep the course safe by preventing vehicles to run in the same lane as the runners and also encourage the runners. We reached our positions around 7 am. We were given a bag with some water, a fruit, some instructions and posters with the words ‘Run, Run’.After about half an hour we could see the red and blue flashing lights or a couple of police bikes slowly coming towards us. They were escorting the leading pack of runners, about half a dozen Kenyans and one caucasian. I showed my ‘Run, Run’ sign enthusuastically but the runners were too busy concentraing on te race. Only the police stared at me. After another 13 mins a trickle of runners started and it grew slowly. |
People have different ways of running. Some stride with long steps while others take rapid small steps like chihuahua dogs. Some jog without showing any strain whatsoever while some seem to fear that they may melt away into the road. I had taken my cowboy hat along to protect myself from the sun and that earned me some special looks from the runners. Some looked at me in disgust, probably cause cowboy hats don’t go well with flip-flops. Others seemed to smile at this strange combination. Most runners seemed to appreciate our presence with a small nod of the head while some did a mini salute with the first two fingers of the right hand. A couple of them actually high fived with us. The runners seem to be well equipped. Some had these small bottles around their waist like Batman. Some had water bottles in a small backpack connected to the mouth with pipes(got to be a techie) but all were drenched in sweat. Rama Yannam, an HY member was in the marathon too. He had been training for a while now. He remarked to us as he crossed us ‘Phat rahi hai yaar!’. I couldn’t do anything for him except show him my ‘Run, Run’ sign and holler for him. After some time came the round of runners who had mastered the art of socialising in a marathon. They were plain walking and chatting with one another. I tried to make my ‘Run, Run’ poster as visible as possible to them but that didn’t change anything. Some of them started chatting with us.
We were surprised to see runners of all ages. Teenagers to octogenerians. In fact the majority of the runners would belong to the elder age group. The people past their prime, had the capability to run 26 miles, which is twice the length of the entire WA-520 !! I felt our presence to encourage them was worthwhile. Finally at the end, the last runner was spotted again followed by a car with flashy lights.
It was a nice experience to see all sorts of people taking part in the marathon. Rama did complete it. If you are interested in running for marathons, contact Rama Yannam – yannam at gmail dot com. He coordinates the practise sessions for marathon training around here and also raise money for the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation. Ekal is a great organisation, which runs children’s schools at the cost of $1 a day. do check it out. Maybe next year I will be there too, running on 520 besides the rising sun.
