Running And Living Marathon and a Half!! Dec 2009 GGN

IG Police Sheel Madhur Holds up 6 year old Sonu Yadav who came 4th in the 5km run

Prakash and MAJOR at the start of the Marathon - Running it was tough and MAJOR (his dog) was dog tired at the end of it- He earned his gold medal too
Dr Ashis Roy ran his 99th marathon with us in Gurgaon

"Recognize your victories"
Joan Benoit Samuelson - American Champion Marathoner
5K, 10K, Half and Full Marathon finishers You are all winners - and we at Running and Living, Frito Lays and Pepsico applaud your achievement.


Many of you did your personal bests in terms of timing and several of you ran your farthest distance yet - congratulations! We couldn't have asked for more - great information on different aspects of running at the expo - on footwear from Reebok, on Yoga from Arun, on Running and inspiration - from Dr Ashis Roy, on Running Gear and last minute tips from Running And Living, on Nutrition and a Healthy heart from Quaker Oats, with a hot sample dose to get the process of cholesterol reduction started, before the runs on the weekend. Gatorade at each aid station for the half and full marathons made sure that all were properly hydrated and energised, and for those who needed the Lays, for additional salt replenishment, or just for a change, or just for fun, it was there, along with oranges, bananas and Glucose biscuits. The folks from Elemention kept us well hydrated and the Max Health Care medical staff did a stellar job of keeping us injury free. Hats off to teh Gurgaon Traffic Police as they not only kept all the traffic at bay and blocked the road off for the runners, but they actively cheered too.Our volunteers did a stellar job and all of us enjoyed being with you, and we hope you had a great time.
We had over 800 people participate in our weekend buffet of runs apart from some spectators to cheer runners on at a couple of points! Tons of folks came from the NCR of course and then Bhiwani, Rohtak, Sonepat, Allahabad, Muzzafarnagar, and then onwards from Chandigarh, Shimla, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and even Dubai - to name a few. Course records were broken at will, in this 2nd edition of the Running And Living Marathon and a Half!!
6 year old Sonu Yadav from Manesar came 4th in the 5km open in an inredible time of 23 :18.
Dr Roy did his 99th marathon with an appropriate bib - "99 not out" in 6:39.
Our half marathon course record was set with a blazing 1:11:20 by Rakesh Sharma and the Full Marathon record was set at 2:59:22 by Pawan Kumar
The 1^st 5 places and results were as follows:

Running And Living 5km Run
Position Name Time
1^st Ram Singh 19 mins 36 secs
2^nd Manish Yadav 20 mins 46 secs
3^rd Manish Khosla 21 mins 50 secs
4^th Sonu Yadav 23 mins 18 secs
5^th Rudra Bhanu 26 mins 50 secs


Running And Living 10km Run

Position Name Time
1^st Sonu Sharma 37 mins
2^nd Sunil Sharma 37 mins 10 secs
3^rd Gautam Singh 38 mins 22 secs
4th Sandeep Yadav 40 mins 10 secs
5^th Francois Delannoy 45 mins 30 secs

Running And Living Half Marathon
Position Name Time
1^st Rakesh Sharma 1hr 11mins 20 secs new course record
2^nd Sudhir Singh 1 hr 11mins 45 secs
3^rd Ajeet Shukla 1 hr 13 mins 23 secs
4^th Anil Kumar 1 hr 14 mins 16 secs
5^th Rakesh 1 hr 16 mins 35 secs

Running And Living Marathon
Position Name Time
1^st Pawan Kumar 2 hrs 59 mins 22 secs new course record
2^nd Naresh Kumar 2 hrs 59 mins 30 secs
3^rd Gautam Singh 3 hrs 13 mins 26 secs
4^th Ajay Kumar Pal 3 hrs 13 mins 26 secs
5^th Jaswir Singh 3 hrs 40 mins 34 secs
Some comments froma few runners of the full marathon which we got in were:
“I feel like I could go on a few more miles” said Namburi and Ravi Parmeshwar, both from Cargill,at the finish line where both ran their first full marathon.

Prakash Gupta – Executive Director at Frito Lay, ran with his dog – Major, for the 3^rd time in a Running And Living endurance event – This time the full marathon. Both were beaming at the finish, where Major was also awarded the gold- finishers medal.
Tanvir Kazmi of Cadence running his 6^thmarathon with his 2^nd best timing at 4:48 said, “I could think of one line which differentiates this marathon from any other marathon in India - "The kind of runners support which the Running and Living marathon provides exceeds by far anything seen in any other marathon in India, even if you go as far as the Mumbai marathon and Delhi half marathon. Continuous supply of nourishment in the form of Gatorade, biscuits, chips and bananas is something you won't find anywhere else, and runners simply love it here."

Dr Ashis Roy, running his 99^th marathon said, ”This is the real marathon, for runners by runners, where every detail is planned and managed, with the runner at the centre”, after he finished in 6 hours and 39 minutes.
We had runners from Japan, the US, UK and France and Germany and Malaysia with us and that added to the flavour of this being a unifying experience - from Japan to Jhajjar, from America to Allahabad, from France to Faridabad and Germany to Gurgaon. We have many photographs for you to enjoy of the different runs
Check out over 1000 snaps at 5k/ 10K, Half and Full Marathon and much more at
If you have clicked some snaps - upload them onto Picasa or Flickr or whatever and send us the link by replying to this email so that we can share with all. Timings will be posted by Thursday
We however know we had opportunities for improvement on the 3rd day of action at the half and full marathon as we had a few volunteer drop outs, due to personal emergencies.as Zoobie and Anita manned the ends, Emily manned the middle and Rahul ran the course checking, as we shuffled, water and Gatorade and other supplies as required and some runners missed the hot Quaker Oats at Club Florence Post the runs, as they nursed their feet and cheered other runners at the finish point.
We would love to hear from you about opportunities for improvement - just let loose. We mean it!! We are all fellow runners and would appreciate your inputs.
We hope to get chip timing next time around, triple the number of participants, 6 times the volunteers for the marathon, and 10 times the fun.
Now that you are infected with the running virus - go infect everyone around you- we are glad that running is contagious!!
"They say you can't run away from your troubles. I say that you can"
John Bingham, Marathoner and writer

Best
From all the volunteers who enjoyed seeing you smile
ps - see you soon at our next runs in the NCR and beyond