Neville’s Dawn to Dusk – and a few other heroes
Yesterday (Sunday – Jan 8, 2012) was Neville’s Dawn to Dusk event – links are plenty, but here are some random ones:
Madras Round Table 94 HT Neville Runs From Dawn To Dusk
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/article2787226.ece
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Neville-J-Bilimoria/206995032720751
Clearly, a fantastic cause, a great runner and more than anything else – an awesome initiative. Plenty of us *think* about doing stuff to help, raise funds, do_your_bit and all that and very rarely *do* anything about it.
Something like this needs initiative; a genuine desire to help and contribute and a will to get things done.
In such events, it’s probably “easier” (hmm.. you know – running for 6 hours and biking for another 6 hours) compared to pulling in various people, engaging the ad/ media machine, planning and executing the logistics challenge and actually driving the whole event through. It must have been a bloody nightmare and so my respect for Neville has multiplied – not just for his outstanding running/ biking feat, but more for having pulled this off and having raised what, I am sure, must have been a substantial amount to benefit those who actually need it.
Now to my running heroes.
Sundar – This man ran a half before 9 am when the event was flagged off – and joined Neville all the way. Yeah – 6 hours of running + 6 hours of biking. The half was just a warm up. Sundar didn’t even get a mention in all that media blitz, or at least I didn’t hear any. Bloody incredible.
Painter! – I read his DM update and almost choked on whatever I was eating at that time. He was planning to run for a couple of hours and go home. Instead, he just kept running for the full 6 hours! I was like “what!” – I have never (and can’t even contemplate) imagine running that long unplanned. I mean – how can somebody plan to run for about 2 hours, and then just simply, unplanned – chug along for another 4 hours!
That too from 9 am to 3 pm.
I ran too – from 9 am to 11 am, and it was so humid and hot that we (Rocket, Shahid and I) stopped. We couldn’t go more – not even to finish a half (which was our original target). We just stopped because we were too tired.. and Painter – 6 hours and when I called him, brushed it aside as if it was no big deal. “Ah. It was nothing” he says..
