Burn the midnight oil

Bengaluru Midnight Marathon 2018

By Veloscope

February 5^th, 2019

A run for everyone

The only marathon in India to cater to the night owls, the ones who come alive at midnight, the ones who want to glow in the dark, is the Bengaluru Midnight Marathon. This exciting race took place in December, at its home for 12 editions now, Whitefield, Bangalore.

Everyone was welcome:

Marathoners & half marathoners from 19 countries.

10k runners from the neighbourhood.

A corporate relay with 8 runners per team take on a marathon.

The fittest startup challenge, where startups like Dunzo, Razorpay, HackerEarth, Happay participated and HealthifyMe walked away with top honours.

5k runners for the IT City fun run.

Community relay, with friends and family running 5k, in teams of 5. The contribution of 1k each was challenging enough while being collaborative.

A differently abled run with over 85 participants, led by blade runner Shalini Saraswathi.

All this, on top of the CXO Power Mile and Pet-a-thon events conducted earlier in the year, made the 11,000 off participants across categories simply thrilled.

future athletes

The youngest participants got their time under the moon (or is it the setting sun, given these future athletes to retire early - to bed) and they made for a lot of enthusiasm, encouragement and a load of appreciation from the watchers-on.

the sporting life

Few races and race organisers take into consideration the podiums of the year 2030. Events like these, which have a space exclusively catered to the young, create experiences for them to dwell on. The impressions of how they felt during the race: the exhilaration of the start, the startling slump of the middle, the wish to stop and give up, but being spurred on by people around, the surprising surge of strength to carry on, the high of the finish. These help them become stronger humans, stronger members of their community. They become people who are able to offer help without strings attached, they are able to receive help with grace and acknowledge it.

They also learn to play well with others, play fair, experience their own power and take their space.

what 11,000 people experiencing a 12 year old sporting tradition looks like

the elite runners and lite runners come together

The Bangalore Midnight Marathon has a 12 year old legacy of catering a variety of runners. For the organisers, this means, wearing multiple hats, all at once. They not only need to be prepared to warmly welcome the children with Santa Claus, they need to prepare security in the back end to support the safety of 11,000 visitors. They need to think of food stalls for physical sustenance for the runners as well as selfie booths to make the runners feel a sense of accomplishment. In the 12 years since their start in 2007, (an event I remember as only my second half marathon, and one I was petrified at the start line of), it must be gratifying to be reminded of how many joys, successes they have been a part of, and how many running lives have been altered by the existence of this event, one that pays homage to the night owl, where waking up at 4am for race prep is not needed.

So, the next time you are at a running race and go past someone who looks like they have not slept a lot and are still standing strong for you, give them a high five - that's all they usually need to keep going and create more such experiences for you.

whitefield bearing witness to the run

The race route goes past the metro construction. The same road where you might have taken an angry 30 minutes to cross a 100 metres transforms at night into an inviting landscape for you to spend some quality me-time while running. And so, your relationship with that road is forever altered.

Maybe you got your family to cheer for you as you ran. You could have come back to see them enjoying a little activity, or contentedly spending time with their thoughts. These images render themselves into our hearts, and help us find a connection to this fundamentally sweet and simple city, and its equally sweet 'burb. We cease to see Whitefield as a township, or as an irritant. It suddenly becomes visible, vibrant and beautiful... much like all those people supporting you in your race, whom you only pass that one time on the race route when they extend their hand with a cup of water, perhaps, but have touched your life.

it's a party

At the end of that night of running past milestones, it's time to return to some music and some revelling in accomplishments.

Teams that run together stay together

Run with your company's team, and you realise that this isn't a trite and overused statement. At work, we tend to get caught up with our daily deliverables, and see others as others who also work in the same place as us. But plan a race with 3 others, and you get involved with their training, their diet, their sleep pattern... in short, their well-being. When they feel uncertain or nervous, you send them strength training plans and motivational quotes and whatever is needed to help them get out of that phase and get going - this is you investing in their future wins. You help them plan for their fastest run yet - that is, you are setting them up for success, knowing that your own success depends on them.

When you go above and beyond work goals and company missions, it comes down to this - people connecting with other people. And when that happens, we all end up winners.

celebrations at midnight

With a sense of accomplishment on a job well done - by 11,000 runners, no less, we bid you goodbye from this round of the Bangalore Midnight Marathon and look forward to another rendezvous in the dark of December, this year.