This was my first half marathon attempt. I wanted to join the 2005 as well as 2006 editions but somehow lost for laziness. Then it was branded as Hutch Delhi Half Marathon. This time with loads of money to buy Hutch, Vodafone got the title spot. Had registered via the indiatimes website. Trust me, I completely thought either they would mess my details, or incorrectly charge my card and later forget and refuse about it. Again due to my great laziness, I joined the 30000 people on the last day of the registration (about 2 months before the date). Charged my card with about ~Rs.200 for my as well as for my brother vivek. So I must say, I was wrong about indiatimes at least on this count. They did manage the electronic registrations nicely. They actually managed the hosting web page too in neat way.
Before three 3 weeks I got the two envelopes for me and for bro with more details about the event. Still no race track information within it. The track was not even on any online web page at that time. I guess the finalizations take its own time. The details in the envelope stated that we need to collect our running Bib from Ansal plaza, New Delhi within the span of 4 days before the race day. And this was a strict remark. 
So we go there on 26th October. We get a small kit with few items with big bold logos on them as well as the last notes with the race track (finally!!!). I kept starring at the track and wondering, they expect me to run half past delhi and back and at too under three hours!!??. Are they crazy? Or am I? My running number was 6110 and bro was on 6112. Since me and bro sure were to complete the race and also needed the race timings, we also rented 2 timing chips as Rs.1000 each. This amount was to be refunded on the race day itself. The chip from sport-timing was tagged for me and was supposed to be worn at the ankle all the time during the race. Bro did not think its a RFID due to the manner the data was been read from it. A simple copper wire could detect some signals been emitted from this device. So I suppose, the signals would keep getting sent for as long as the battery would allow. Anyway, our visit to the Half-Marathon Expo was now complete. Took near 2 hours but everything was organized fine keeping in mind the incoming traffic of 30K in 4 days.
Ah, the race day morning started at 4am. It is October 28, 2007. We had seen a late night show of Shoot-Em-Up and reached home at 2am in the morning on the race day itself. (God bless Clive Oven). So we reach the reserved parking slot at the Nehru Stadium. A shuttle bus service would drop us to the start point. At 6.40am, only 7 cars were parked. An array of about 6 busses were waiting to leave on after another. The first bus had left and we sat on the second. After ~15 minutes reached the spot which was 5 minutes walk to the arrival area. We realize that the Veteran race had already started at 7am. The chip holders like us and another thousand would get the first race entry therefore had a separate holding area. At 7.45am the half marathon race had started. The crowd like this I had not imagined. A total of 7000 runners were for the 21.097km distance. We both were just casual joggers therefore, we knew our stamina would empty at near ~6km or 40 minutes. It was a heavy congested crowd for the first killo metre and the we found the first water spot. As per the details, there would be plain water every killometre and a energy drink every 4. There was markers for every killometre along the way. Me and bro continued together past 5 killometres non-stop when he took the first halt. I departed with engines running. My first halt came at 9km for about 2 minutes. It was 50 minutes to race then. Sooner I heard cheers and found Disi Diudone, Rwanda and Macharia Isaac, Kenea coming back! Wow! I ran another 2 killometres and no fuel left anymore. Found the first Glucon D station and felt really great! My pit stops beyond 11 mark were quite frequent. Found another group, Indians this time coming back. Reached the India Gate and back again while walking. Half mark was crossed at 1h.10m i guess. Did about half run and walk cycles till it was 19 km mark. Had done lots of calculations to guess that I sure could rest and still finish the run within the time. Surprisingly found the 500metre board. Without fuel, charged the engines up again and ran. Ran and ran and counted every 100 metre board I found along the way till the finish list time recorded me at 2h.39m. Bro crossed the line just 7 minutes behind at 2h.46m and found me in the queue.
The queue was the nightmare. The queue was for taking the chip refund, the certificate, the medal and the timing certificate. That queue was in open at at 11am under the sun. It was for everyone who completed the race and was among the “privilaged†group of chip holders. Us privilaged ones were made to stand under the sun for 2 hours at the same spot. All the joy of achievement had gone away. The mega branding of Vodafone was never seen anywhere around. A typical goverment office of India with chaos and nothing else. It was already declared that the refund would only be given on the race day before 2pm. The details also suggested snaks would be given after finish. Those snaks had a seperate queue which we privileged can’t take at this moment. News of printers going bad, server down and what not kept floating all the time. The queue also had people from bombay marathon suggesting the very same chaos was noticed even there. The dumb staff with bold logos did not know anything about the correct process. No even a clue about managing the thousand finishers who are made to stand for 2 whole hours. There are no cameras here. Nobody is waving brands here or queuing for a NGO. We runners were only important in the track. Now left in unattended, we did not even have the guts to start a debate. Had this been to the knowledge of the runners, I can bet less than half would not even come to the race. We are Indians, so we always know there is a queue for everything. But we just thought the title brand may have some sense to manage such large scale events. Alas. Corporates and corporates. We are just bloody consumers. Go find your own way. We did not get the certificate and did not join the next queue for the snaks. Never knew how it felt when the legs shut down. The shuttle bus was nowhere to take us back though it was printed. After half hour paid Rs.100 to drop us from Nehru Park to Nehru stadium and another hour for home sweet home. Bro was fine the second day, while my legs were normal only on the fourth morning. It was all the fun but the finish line. I will be there next year too though along with wife. And this time would target under 90 minutes. Need far better practice but worth it. Cheers!
(there were many many brands all though the track giving water and to napkins. most of those brands have been intensionally removed, except the title)
