Vijay Barve

Bangalore International Marathon

On Sunday 15th May 2005, I got opportunity to witness Bangalore International Marathon. At 6 am I went to Hebbal Flyover, from where the Marathon was supposed to pass. The volunteers were ready with Water Sponges and Water Bottles for the Athletes. The traffic police were in place to control the traffic for the runners to run freely.

I took a vantage point on the bridge from where I could see most of the track. At around 6:35 am the first group[p of runners reached Hebbal Flyover. The car showing the timing showed only little more than 30 minutes.

The first group consisted of Ethiopian trio of Abebe Seyoum, Tegayae Desalgne and Tesfaye Bayu Orgawa and two Indians. I was not able to identify the Indians because I have never seen any prominent Indian marathon runners. I could not identify Ethiopians either, but I knew there people are running this time, and I had seen them in Mumbai marathon this year.

The response for Half Marathon was really good, and many non-professional runners were participating in that. They seem to executives from companies. It was really nice to see such a good response for Half Marathon.

At about 7:30 am I decided to shift my side and go to the return route. Half marathon participants were already there, when I reached. I was really surprised to see M C Ramu (I did not know his name that time) leading the Full Marathon and that too a margin of about 300m that time at Hebbal Flyover He was follwed by the Ethiopian runners.

On my return home I came to know the result that M C Ramu has one the race by a margin of 5 minutes. Hats of to M C Ramu!!!

posted by Vijay Barve @ 9:49 PM