Monday, August 7, 2023

kalaingar international marathon 2023

I got a chance to participate in kalaingar memorial international marathon 2023 which created a Guinness world record for the largest running race series. When I initially read about the event, I saw that it has a separate winning category for thirunangai's. This was very impressive. I remembered kalaignar karunanidhi as he was the one to term transgender people thirunangai as a token of respect. I immediately registered for the event.

I was eagarly waiting for the event as there were 70000+ participants. It will be interesting to see how the event gets organised with such a huge crowd.
Finally the day has arrived, 6th August 2023. The start line vibe was high and we did a short zumba to warm up. Tamilnadu youth welfare and sports development minister Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin started the race.

I was expecting atleast 4 cheer up points with music to energise the runners. But to my surprise, there were 14 cheer up stages with artist coming from various part of tamilnadu. This is the level of support that TN government is providing to encourage participants in the areas of sports and fitness.
The finish point was filled with lot of medal and food counters. But still the crowd was high. The funds collected as registration charges will be utilised for cancer treatment center in government Royapettah hospital.

I thoroughly enjoyed the event and got my personal best timing for half marathon (2h:15m)

#kalaingar100 #chennaimarathon #UdhayanidhiStalin #MaSubramaniyan