Dream Runners Half Marathon 2018

RUNNING ON DREAMS

By Veloscope

September 23^rd, 2018

The community always goes the extra mile

Indian running is witnessing the emergence of two distinct kinds of running races: one is the city race with all its trappings - celebrity runners at expos, low entry costs, freebies, and participant count runs into 5-digit numbers; the other is the community race - with a possibly longer legacy, smaller and manageable number of participants, and probably most importantly, soul. The large races serve an important purpose - they get the sport of running the attention it deserves at a city or national level. The community race, on the other hand, is the place where the next generation of runners are being forged. "By the runner, for the runner" races started as early back as 2007, and spread across the country. Village elders of the running community of that neighbourhood often give up their own race to help organise a classy run.

The Dream Runners Half Marathon 2018 is a stellar example of a race of the latter category. In its 7th edition this year, organised by the Dream Runners club of Chennai, this has fast become a must-attend in the southern peninsula.

the Volunteers' dream run

This edition of the DRHM was particularly special for the Dream Runners. They marked 10 years since their inception in Chennai. Their journey of many miles now spans across 10 chapters, where they continue the time-honoured tradition of introducing distance running to bright eyed newbies. They say that human beings were born to run. You could say that the Dream Runners group was born to ensure that Chennai ran safely. The chapters help new runners mile up responsibly, starting running camps for the keen in April. A solid support system of physios, diet experts etc., work to keep the flock safe, happy and excited about exploring their running journey.

This year, in addition to family and friends of the Dream Runners group who take up every role required in the successful organising of a race, they also had folks with placards, egging runners on to greater heights! Volunteers, volunteers everywhere - from route marshals, aid station crews, cheering squads, venue management, to cool water sprays once the sun blazed up the East Coast - this entire event was a labour of love.

run to a different tune

The 4,500 runners whose feet thundered the coastal roads on the morning of 22nd July were glad to know that their race fee was supporting the "Run responsible, run clean" credo of the running club. In previous years, the focus areas have been to raise money for organ donation and suicide prevention. This year, it was prosthetic limb donation. At the end of the event, 103 prosthetic limbs were donated to The Freedom Trust, Chennai.

Supporting the race were various amputees, who lined the course, cheering the runners on.

Plogging

Heard the term? It's picking up litter while jogging. And that is what a large percentage of runners did, choosing to clean up their city and community, and giving up a course record, to do so!

firm resolve

The benefit of a run organised by a community is that, it brings out the humanitarian side of all of us. Participants ran in support of causes close to them. Some wore their patriotic hearts on their sleeve, and others ran with their mouth covered, to bring focus to organ donation (in case you were curious, despite running with a duct tape across his mouth and breathing only through his nose, he completed the race in 2.07)

Dream palate

Yet another memorable first for the group was when the healthy eating ambassadors came together to create and release a book with over 50 healthy recipes from the Dream Runners kitchens.

The Jones counter

The Dream Runners pulled all stops to give us many many firsts: one more being the use of the Jones Counter to measure accuracy of the race route. That so many of our races are working to give us international race experiences is truly humbling.

Wildest of dreams come true

The DRHM 2018 was a race for everyone. Whether it was the out-of-towners who came to run with their Chennai friends on their home ground, or the locals running their longest distance for the first time ever, or race circuit regulars, cleaning their city roads as they went, this race, the 2018 edition, was one for the books. Till the next edition, the Dream Runners keep the dream alive for the hundreds of runners, and for the charities they whole-heartedly endorse.