Aur-Run, AURANGABAD?

MIT Aurangabad Heritage Half Marathon

By Veloscope

January 20^th, 2019

A CITY RUN WITH A BIG HEART

The 34th biggest city in India, on the population metric, Aurangabad is a city to be deeply admired. Here's why: with a population of 11 lakh residents, Aurangabad has had its first city half marathon 2 years back. They managed to do everything: have runners from across the country, organise a flawless race and showcase the best of their city.

From dark to light, from start to finish

Aurangabad's running history mirrors that of the country. The running revolution came to the metros around 2007. What started off as running groups in cities grew to be event organising hubs. People put in extra time after their day jobs to make the first few runs happen. And from there, grew city 10ks marathons, ultramarathons and more!

In Aurangabad, what started as a 1k run, progressed to a half marathon in under 6 months for a bunch of over 40 year old runners. This turned into a running club, that then became the Aurangabad Black Bucks.

The black bucks win the long run

Named after the one animal that can outlast the fastest land animal, just by dint of tenacity, this little running group met every week and slowly stepped up mileage and membership. People ran at events across the country, from Ladakh, to Goa, Satara to Mumbai: if there was an iconic race, this gang was in on it, relentlessly raking up the mileage.

How dreams are born

As these runners experienced other races, other beautiful routes, they experienced the need to organise their own race, showcasing the heritage, the beauty, the transcendence of Aurangabad, home to the Ajanta and Ellora caves, and the Daulatabad Fort.

Individual effort morphs into team work

As the dream grew, the team picked up great practices from all the races they'd experienced and put together one goal - to make flawless execution happen, invite runners from around the country, and show them a good time.

heritage

The race starts near the Daulatabad Fort and the u-turn point is at Ellora caves. How frequently do you do a race where you can say that you started from a UNESCO World Heritage Site and turned around at another?

unparalleled race support

Expo with everything a runner needs: check

Hassle-free registration and runner management: check

Race money: check

Pre-race warm up: check

Pacers: check

En-route medical support: check

Music to cheer up: check

Finisher medal and glorious finisher photos: check

Piping hot yummy food: check

Volunteers at every step of the way, working overnight: check

by the way.

history in the making

New York Marathon didn't become the race that you ran to experience the five burroughs, overnight. Cresting Heartbreak Hill at the Boston Marathon became iconic over many years. What made these things happen was the sincere and consistent efforts by the race organisers to invite visiting runners to relish their heritage, their culture and their uniqueness.

In the energy and spiritedness seen among the Aurangabad Black Bucks, we see a promise of all that greatness. Just give it a dozen or few more editions.