Running and Living at a 4 legged Run at the Salwan School Run

There were 500 kids who ran today with 500 partners - making this the first time I was participating in a race of this kind - as a volunteer. George Abraham - who has done a lot of work in the field with visually impaired folks, who I am proud to say is my cousin, flagged off the run for the visually impaired.

I was at Brar Square at the Delhi Cantonment at 645 am this morning helping my friend Inder Dutt Salwan whose brainshild this Salwan School Marathon is. They now get 40000 kids to participate in a variety of runs. We were hearalding the kids into the corrals for the different races. Seeing the thousands streaming into their enclosures was quite an energising experience. There was excitement in the air, and that kept me busy till 845am.

That's when I found myself with Subal, at the start of the 3.5km run for the visually impaired. There were around 100 people who have run with us at Running and Living who were volunteering - Prem and Parvinder and Sushil and gang from Delhi, Ellen and her family from Denmark, Ajay and Harshita and several others form Gurgaon, Reyhan from S Delhi Polytechnic, Rishi, Nikhilesh, Sanjeev and so many others. That made it a party on the cross country track.

I had a blast with Subal - cheering, clapping, chatting - I gave him a commentary of what all we were passing in this army equestrian ground. This snap above is Subal and me somewhere around the 2.5km mark. And I have to marvel at all the visually impaired kids who ran like they were born to run. Its a little uneven here, stones on the ground her, a dusty slope down and then up  and now its a brick laid track ---- the sun has come out and it is really looking beautiful - and he kept running along with my gentle tugs and commentary never missing a step. In fact just as I was getting ready to click a snap I had a tumble and jokingly thanked Subal for holding my hand.

All of us at the finish line were humbled in many ways, and delighted that we had made it out this morning. The 4 legged race was a great success. Check out the video on the left of this blog.

Rahul Verghese
Running And Living Infotainment Pvt Ltd
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