When the city ran…

The charity run saw over 10,000 people participate in it,including actors Vivek Oberoi and Sameera Reddy. Singer Neha Bhasin too upped the glam quotient as she belted out popular Hindi tracks. And,upon the culmination of the run at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium,the DJ started playing songs from the movie Prince as Oberoi climbed onto the stage to receive his award.

The marathon coincided with the 12th edition of the Asian Marathon and saw runners from 25 countries participating in the silver jubilee edition of the Pune International Marathon. While most of the runners were dressed in the usual tracks and trainers and came looking the part,Sujit Kumar,a management student,who participated in the AIDS charity run,came dressed in a traditional dhoti-kurta. Speaking about his attire,he says,half-joking,“It is definitely more airy and that helps me run easily. I came here for a vacation from Delhi and my friends here insisted that I run the marathon. And since the Delhi half-marathons were interesting and colourful events,I decided to participate. It turned out to be quite an interesting run.”

But all said and done,the innocence of innocuous citizens cannot be ruled out. During the run,when the pack leaders reached the area near the Westend Theatre in Camp,a security guard from a nearby building,in apparent concern that the leader of the pack had actually gone way ahead of everyone,yelled out,“Woh ek insaan bahut aage chala gaya hain,usse bolo yaha pe logo ke saath bhaage (One of the runners has gone ahead of everyone,tell him to come and run with the others here!).”