Sunday the 6th Novemeber there was held an excellent event at the Army Equestrian grounds. A running race. For school children under 18, under 16 and under 14 boys and girls. desitances from 5-8 kms. The special thing - they had also a 3.5 km race for visually and the intellectually challenged kids ! Why was this special ? Not because of the physiological challenges they are facing life with but that the race organisers were not trying to coddle them and make an eye wash event with a 100 mt or 500 mt run but a nice respectable 3.5 KM ! That too a cross country. (for the uninitiated, cross country run means no paved road, ditches, mud, stones, rocks, inclines, declines, bushes, thorns, dust and some horse shit thrown in for good measure, equestrian grounds, remember)
They called out for runners as volunteers with the idea that each runner hold hand of 1 kid and run the distance guiding them. I was with a kiddo named Ayush Prakash from Bihar studying at the Blind School in RK Puram sector 5, New Delhi. He loves social science, reading and running.
Before the run :
We had some small chit chat, warmed up for the run with some stretches, got all hyped for the run and had some fun. We faced all the things typical of a cross country run as mentioned above. We finished the run in about 32 odd minutes. sweaty, dirty and happy!
After the run :
