Great going—2700 km in 27 days
The ultra marathon has been planned to mark 20 years of Vijay Diwas
LUCKNOW: A group of Indian Air Force personnel, who are on the way to Kohima from Kargil as a part of 4500-km ultra-marathon, reached Lucknow on Thursday.
“Indeed it’s a big achievement. So far, we have completed 2700 km in 27 days,” said Om Saran, corporal medical assistant of Indian Air Force (IAF), who is heading the marathon—Glory Run.
Glory Run was launched to commemorate 20 years of ‘Kargil Vijay Diwas’. “It’s the biggest running event so far for the Indian Armed Forces. We especially chalked out this marathon to mark the 20th year of Kargil Diwas and also to spread the word for ‘fit India movement’,” said Saran, the brain behind the run.
Other than Saran, Amit Dalal, squadron leader, IAF, also played a key role in finalising the ultra-marathon that began from Dras in Kargil on September 21.
“We have a team of 20 marathon runners whom we have shortlisted carefully. We also have 5 standby runners. Besides, we also have a backup team, including doctors, ambulance and two other vehicles along,” Saran told HT.
While explaining the format of the ultra-marathon, he said, “Our running starts at sunrise and concludes when the sun sets. We insure that we cover minimum 100km distance in a day. This is our 27th day and we have completed around 2700km. At a time 5 athletes remain on the run, which keeps on changing in every 25km,” he pointed out.
After reaching Lucknow, they visited the Air Force station in Bakshi Ka Talab (BKT).
Commencing from Drass, the marathon has covered Kargil, Leh, Dalhousie, Pathankot, Amritsar, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Bareilly. After Bareilly on Monday, they headed for Lucknow on Tuesday.
The group would leave on Friday for Gorakhpur, and then Darbhangam Bagdogra, Hasimara, Guwahati, Tezpur, Jorhat, Dimapur and Kohima. In Lucknow, the group will be felicitated by a local cycling group Cyclopedia, which would also accompany them till Barabanki.