Mangalore is located in the South Canara / Dakshina Kannada District in Karnataka. It is called “Gateway of Karnataka”. It is business city. I have few good friends in this region. I had very less practice for this marathon.Vinoth and I gathered in Bangalore city railway station on Friday night.
We took the Yesvantpur – Kannur Express. After 12:30 hrs journey from Bangalore we reached Mangalore around 9:30 am. We found some stay near K.C Rao Road (like Town hall road in Madurai, Residency road in Bangalore).
Panambur Beach:Later we moved in Panambur Beach to collect our bib numbers. I was able to read bus route names in Kannada. It is medium size beach. It is located between Mangalore and surathkal and closed to Mangalore port as well as lot of industries. We collected bib number and goodie bag. We took few snaps in beach.
Udupi:We took bus from surathkal to udupi. It is temple city. I visited few times Krishna temple in udupi. I missed to visit Krishna temple when came to Manipal during august so I decided to visit. We got very good darshan in temple in mid day. We missed to have free meals in the temple due our program schedule. This is first time; I missed food in Dakshina Kannada district temples. Most of temples serve the food for everyone.
St. Mary's Island, Malpe:It is very famous beach here. We reached the boat boarding point. it is located the close to port and ship building area. We waited some time for boat. They took us St. Mary’s Island. It was around 30 minute’s travels in sea. We changed boat again in the sea. It was trilling.
We took some snaps and we played some time in the sea water. Beach has different kind of rocks (black). It is unique.
Udupi-Mangalore Highway:
It is one of the famous highway in this region. Still four lane constructions are going on. Mostly private operators are running the bus. Very scary bus travel, because they drove in over speed (I felt). I discussed something with friends. They said that, it is common practice here. We reached Mangalore and went city center Mall. We did small shopping over there.
Race day:
Special bus ( Nitte University bus) was arranged by program organizers. Nitte University is the main Program sponsor. We boarded bus near Bunts Hotel. We met one of the Girls sub-junior state champion in bus, her name is Smitha. We reached on time. We did small starching exercise before starting marathon. Event was very great and plenty of NITTE university students were present and participated. I met few Bangalore runners and as well as our famous photographer Anu too
I participated in half marathon event, Around 200 participants in that event including national and international runners. Event was inaugurated by university vice chancellor around 7.00 am. I was slowly started the race. I had very confident but very less practice.
Every two kilometers water station was there. Race route was Panambur beach - Mlore- Udupi highway - Port area - Village ( 10.5 KMs). Same route was return too. I completed the first 10.5 KMs in 1 hr 5 mins. I was so much tried due high humidity. I did not feel this tiredness when I was running in Mumbai and Chennai marathons. After 2 hrs18 mins , I completed this year’s first half marathon.
By that time vinoth was finished his 10 KMs run and waited for me. He took some nice snaps when about complete the race. They provided the nice and worth medal for completion. Co-ordination commit arranged good refreshment and served by university students. As well as other side some cultural activities was entertaining the audience and runners. We took some group photos and packed from panambur beach.
We reached Managalore KSRTC bus stand around 10:45 am. Our bus started 11 am to Bangalore. We reached Bangalore around 7 pm safely. We had very good fun with heavy and tight program schedule in Mangalore Half Marathon.
My special thanks all my friends, family members and especially for Sudhir and Aravind for provided rich information about this region.
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