My First International Race

Let me start by saying that I don't think it's fair for me to call this a "race".  It was an organized 5K which I had to register for; however, it was nothing like any race I've run in the States.  Many people showed up in flip flops and jeans, people were jumping back and forth over the median which separated the people who had already gone through the turnaround, there were no timing chips, bibs, or even an official start and finish line.

I showed up to run the race wearing an infant carrier backpack with my 1 1/2 year old in it.  We congregated in a large dirt lot near Hussain Sagar Lake, and after a lot of 'hip hip hooraying' for a ton of different causes and organizations people started flowing out onto the road and the race was underway.  No one said, "Go!" or "Start the race!" or counted down.  We just went.  My wife and I were passing people left and right, who may or may not have been in the race.  The occasional car, motorbike, or ambulance whizzed by us on the road since it wasn't really closed.  Aside from the unusual race experience, the route was beautiful.  It was relatively peaceful out by the lake, since nothing in Hyderabad opens before 10am or 11am, and the race started around 8am.

Another reason I can't really call this a 'race' is that around 3/4 of a mile in my son hit me on the shoulder and said, "Da....Da......Da.......Da.....Alllllllll.........Done.......Alllll.....Done."  As I suspected, the bouncing was too much for him and my wife, son, and I decided to walk the rest of the course.  I think we still finished in the top 50% or so :-P  All in all, it was a nice Sunday stroll, and it was great to get outside.  We even made it into 3 different Telugu newspapers!  One of the headlines below our pictures read, "Foreigners Run!"  The perfect capper to the event was that our finisher prizes were a guava sapling and a mango sapling, both of which are planted out on our balcony now.  Welcome to India.

Here are some pics of our first race.

The dirt lot where everyone gathered before the race

All of the guava and mango trees

Hussain Sagar Lake

A nice little path around the lake

The beautiful shoreline...and a guy peeing

A sign we ran into along the way...at least it was non-ionizing radiation

Hussain Sagar Lake

Some of the racers on the course

Happy Running!