Celebrating #100daysofrunning

Whew.

One minute it’s the 30th April & Day 1.

The next thing you know, it’s 7 August, Day 100 & the gig is over.

WHERE on earth have 100 days gone to?

Since we started our collective running odyssey on 30 April, we have run, as a group, as at the time of writing…pause for a quick drumroll…

Now yes, yes, I know, I know, these stats may well be out of date by the time this blog post is written & uploaded, but I’ve already had to re-upload these stats four times since I started writing (I kid you not) as people continue to log in & update their stupendous achievement.

226,445.65km, people 🙂

What began as a personal challenge for Tanvir Kazmi 2 summers ago, became a decent-sized group last year:

and a year later…well, as you can see from the photo below, we were a much bigger crowd this morning at India Gate for cake & medals & photos.  Oh yes, and a celebratory run down Raj Path 🙂

And there were similar reunions all over the country.

Just look.

Here are photos from around the country of different groups celebrating!  Fantastic pan-India celebrations, my friends

Ahmedabad

Chennai

Lucknow

Chandigarh

Yesterday’s Times of India told the story of the challenge and I have a feeling that this is a story that may well be told some more, for it is getting bigger year on year.

Tanvir, my friend –  shabash 🙂

Since today was all about celebration, here you are –  a few memories from the Delhi NCR get together.  We met at 6.15, took photos, ran, got our T shirts & medals, ate cake, took more photos, ate cake…you get the general idea?

Here is our youngest 100 day finisher, Tanvir’s son Sameer.  What a rockstar.  Just like his proud Dad.

One of the cakes, held aloft by Dr. Anjali Nayar

and the super logo cake 

The diminutive Mamta Jaiswal, top of the women’s leaderboard, and overall 10th in the country, with a distance of 1319.61km under her belt these past 100 days.  We featured her here in the blog a couple of weeks ago, and for those of you who didn’t read the interview then, here’s the link again.  A serious power-house, this young lady!

On a personal note, I want to say a big public thank you to Pankaj Arora, whom I had met just once at the time (right, Pankaj?) when he sent me a Facebook message last year, telling me about the #100days & suggesting I join in…thanks SO much, my friend, & it was good to run together today, even minus “Jai Ho” blazing from my phone 🙂

Oh, I could go on for ever, sharing photos & saying thank you’s to all the special folk who make up the Delhi NCR running community, but I’ll end here, and give the final word to Manik Dhodi, whom we also profiled a few weeks ago, here in the blog – here’s the link – and who coolly ran up and down Raj Path twice this morning, to ensure he crossed the 1300km mark, and come in a fantastic overall 11th.

Manik sums up exactly the way I feel right now…

“#100DaysOfRunning
‪#‎Day100‬
What Now ?
This is the question I asked myself after leaving from India Gate this morning, after the Celebration Ceremony & medal distribution. A journey full of experiences and learnings. What looked like a huge mountain to climb few months back, is actually Mission Accomplished today. But as they say, it is the journey that has the beauty, not the destination. So time to start a new journey from tomorrow.
Ye Dil Maange More !”