Pacemakers Half Marathon - By Chaitanya Josyula

Yesterday morning was special. It was after months of lockdown that a bunch of us were meeting to run the Pace Race Half Marathon, organized by PaceMakers. While it was not a race with podiums, PaceMakers being what they are, took this event as seriously as they would take any other race.

Re-living the race morning gave everyone joy-inexplicable. Setting up multiple alarms to anxious tummies to getting the running gear ready the previous evening, was all nostalgic. Ticking off gel, hydration, bananas on the checklist was a fulfilling exercise.

Once at the venue, seeing fellow runners do warm-ups and standing at the start line already started giving everyone that endorphin rush. Post flag off, every runner was in razor-sharp focused form and conquered the distance. What can I say about the gush of adrenalin while approaching the finish line. Familiar emotional outbursts, beaming smiles and posing for pictures for good memories ensured we went the full circle.

The whole line up from th e time we registered to the time we collected our medals was so seamless. But wait, while most of us were clocking our best timings during the run, I started thinking of “What if” What if Pace Race was not organized? What if people who were behind the scenes did a job less exemplary than what it turned out to be?

What if the unsung heroes (please read this as gender neutral) who decided not to run but volunteer, be it in the form of cheering, to standing there holding bottles, to clicking pictures (that we all get to show off on social media) and videos, timing the run right (since we all love personal best timings : ) ), decided to run ?