Rescue Runners run for a cause - Fund raising for victims of the Uttarakhand Floods

Our much beloved Flashbulbzz team of photographers volunteered their services for the event while donating all proceeds to the cause. The RFL team was planning a run on the same route, and so they kindly volunteered to assist with the aid stations. And yes, just like that, we had all that we needed. The weekend of July 7 was booked as a lot of the Bangalore Runners, including the Protons, were in Chennai for the DRHM. This made the weekend of July 14 perfect for a beautiful stress-free fun run.

Come the morning and there was a steady trickle of the runners from around Bangalore. A special mention here of the Bee Gee Run Bugs – they started their day at 4:30am, running a distance of 17Km to the venue, registering for the run, running the 10K distance at the event and then making their way back the 17K on foot.

I would like to mention that the presence of Bylahalli Raghunath Janardhan was inspiring – at the age of 80, the gentleman cycled a distance of 25K, ran the 10K event and then cycled the 25K back home. We also had amongst us Raghavendra, who is a survivor of this calamity and was personally stuck in Badrinath for 6 days. Big shout out to the celebrity star attractions and ace runners Ash Nath, Vaishali Kasture, Nanjunda Yellappa, Srinath Nagappa who were there having a good time with a smile on their face and encouraging the new and experienced runners likewise.

Another warm fuzzy moment was to see 7-year-old Dev Sinha and 11-year-old Divya Sinha ( brother – sister duo) run their first ever 5k race. ( I see the virus spreading!!)

As fun as the run was, the top finishers completed this trail with excellent times – we had Bangalore boy Vignesh finish first in the male 10K category, Vaishali Kasture was the top finisher in the female 10k category, Tabish from Decathlon finished first in the male 5k category and Alina Thangjam came in first in the female 5k category. I would like to mention here that Alina is the lady who introduced me to fitness and running. It was a proud moment for me to see her come in first at this event. This was followed by a small ceremony recognising the top finisher, a core session and finally a wind-down with a stretching session.

All in all, this was a great event with wonderful energy which left all participants and organisers with a smile on their face. To talk about statistics, there were around 100 runners who participated in this event. Together, we have raised just over INR 55,000.00 to be sent to the victims. In case anyone is interested in making any donations to this cause, you can still make them :

1. You may donate directly to the Prime Minister National Relief Fund online @https://pmnrf.gov.in/.

2. The “Rotary Club of Bangalore Lakeside” is also running a drive to raise funds for helping the people affected in the Himalayan Tsunami in Uttarakhand and to start the collection drive. If you want to donate you may bring in a Cheque drawn in favor of ” Rotary Club of Bangalore Lakeside”. The Club will provide utilization report of the money collected as part of this drive. Rotary will issue a proper receipt for your contribution; and if anyone wants to avail 80G benefits then we can ask Rotary to arrange those receipts too.

3. In case you wish to organise a similar event in any city in India, please get in touch with the author at [email protected].