Vadodara Marathon - 2009

The big day ‘VADODARA MARATHON-2009’ has started with a bad note, day before the D-Day I enjoyed a late evening show of doomsday thriller ‘2012’ at Inox Baroda, and was careless to set my morning alarm. We were instructed to report sharp 5.30 am at the venue - famous Navlakhi ground, besides beautiful Laxmi Vilas Palace, Baroda  is an erstwhile kindgdom ruled by Maratha kings  ‘The Gaekwads',  famous for their contributions to education, social development and banking   Bank of Baroda was founded by  HEH Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad-III in circa 1908 and is the main sponsor of this event, ‘VADODARA MARATHON-2009’; it was arranged in aid of ‘Vadodara Traffic Education Trust’.  The day was 22nd November 2009 and It was already 6.45am when I woke up from my sleep, hurriedly rushed to the venue, little worried as the formalities were supposed to close by 6.30 am, I was stopped at the starting point by a guard, and fortunately he let me in after looking at the BOB’s name embossed on the specially designed T-shirt, (all sponsoring corporates had their individual logo's on the running gear).   I was surprised to see that no frisking by security personnel was done at the main gates though celebrities like Kapil Dev, Paresh Raval, ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh, BOB CMD Mr. Mallya, and Charismatic CM of Gujarat Narendrabhai Modi graced the occasion with their presence and cheered a crowd of 32000+ participants.

CM, Mr. Modi expressed to make Baroda ‘Speed Capital of India’ noting that Wagon major Bombardier, Apollo, Volkswagen are stationed here and exporting their products he promised to gift two international stadiums…though someone grumbling,  to show the things done and not to make empty promises…Baroda is known as ‘Sanskari-nagari’, we find people here religiously more devoted to God and even more vigorously devoted to Just-in outfits directly from fashion houses all over world – basically Baroda has good number of NRI’s, so the brands too. Fortunately ‘fashion’ doesn’t differentiate people here, it’s every, where mixing with all classes of society'.

Marathon was flagged off by Mr. Narendrabhai Modi at 7.30 am, there were different routes planned according to distance and I enrolled in 5 km run, it was fun to run with few collegues, as we started with good spirits people lined to cheer the participants as they passed through the lanes, students from various professional colleges staged their cheering camps at the street corners with their Band, strumming the tunes which elevated the mood. Some participants were in costumes too. Highlight of this event is the half marathon of 21.09 kms participated by professionals and amateurs with great sportsmanship and cheers to the town folk of Baroda who received them with high spirits and for encouraging the runners all the way to the finishing point. We completed the run within the stipulated time frame of 45mins and registered to receive participation certificate.

As a part of the marathon a musical night by ‘Kunal Ganjawala’ was arranged at the same Navlakhi grounds though there was Indian Idol-4 runner up Torsha Sarkar, Baroda’s own Jyotsna Parikh, singer Abhijeet and Kunal Ganjawala the show was not impressive except some good number sung by Torsha & Jyotsna, a big disappoint for a Music buff like me. On the whole its only marathon run which gave an immense pleasure, joy of participation and a sense of responsibility towards the society.

Though there were some glitches in the event, as people struggled to find out the registration desk at the finishing point, it was in the national newpapers that timing was not properly noted in the half marathon etc., however, this marathon was a great success, event organisers has assured to have learned some lessons from this event and will see that the next year’s event will be more successful. Organizers have already declared that the r(f)un will be for ‘Human Nexus’….So count down started…for GO VADODARA GO- 2010.