BITS 2 Marathon 10 KM Race - 44:57 PB

Image by jeffjose via Flickr

I have been a member of the BITS 2 Marathon running discussion group for the past 4 months. This group consists of Alumni and current students of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, my alma mater.

I joined the group to share my experience of running 7 marathons (Chicago 2009, Copenhagen 2008, Berlin 2007, Reykjavik 2007, London 2007, Oslo 2006, Reykjavik 2006) and also learn from other BITSians who are on the running trail. One of the founding members suggested that we should organize a World Run, i.e. everyone runs a race in their current location on a specific date. The group enthusiastically supported the idea and the BITS Alumni Association took the initiative to provide us with the web space to allow registration and they did an amazing job of designing a T-Shirt and the certificate of completion. I will post them once I receive it. The race was set for December 6th 2009. There were a total of160 registrations in locations ranging from Bay Area in California to Marina Beach in Chennai. Many BITSians in the locations who could not participate in the race volunteered to organize the race and support the runners. We have been getting updates from each of the locations, and it is fascinating to see so many faces taking on this challenge. Note that many of the participants are first time runners.

I am the only BITSian in Reykjavik, Iceland so I had to run the race alone. My effort to get my running buddies to participate did not materialize as I was lazy to not announce earlier than the day of the run, what can I say the last minute planning of Iceland has its influence never the less it has been a gorgeous day for a run. I started at around 10 am and completed the race in 44 minutes and 57 seconds, this is my personal best and I improved on my previous personal best by 1 minute and 6 seconds. I am pretty happy with my performance and I acheived my goal which was to run the 10 km sub 45 minutes :)