Chennai: Within the city limits, the neighbourhood is one of the popular places known for its religious significance and the weekend bottleneck in Ram Nagar is a testimony to it.
On the flip side, the hidden gems in and around the locality are left unexplored which precisely prompted Bandit Runners or Runners of Nanganallur to organise ‘Temple Run 2.0.’
In conversation with News Today, Ram Ganesh, a ‘Bandit’ and one of the coordinators speaks about the marathon.
“It is more of a fun run unlike the regular marathons. For the second edition of the event, we have carefully chosen a few shrines belonging without religious bias. The catch is to hunt the places that are oft-ignored. We have received 320 registrations so far from elsewhere in the city, including Nanganallur and have been grouped into 80 teams with four each,” Ram says, and adds that there many other temples apart from Anjaneyar Temple and Lakshmi Narasimhar Temple.
The team marathon has been planned for 45 minutes where the members of the team should visit as many shrines as they can at the shortest time and they would be declared as the winners.
“We would be giving 20 questions based on the spots that do not occupy the limelight, the participants should find out the answers and reach the place. The participant should collect the bonus coins from one of the organisers who are present at the locations. To cover more temples, the group is allowed to split and reach the target,” the Nanganallur resident added.
“Along with it, we promote fitness as we have fixed the time limit as 45 minutes,” he says. The first edition happened in 2017 and around 75 people participated based on the similar theme and the second edition will take place on 1 September starting from the ground of Chellammal School between 5 am and 7 am.
“The 20 spots are spread out around the ground and we have split them into three tiers based on the distance – within 2 km, 2 km and 4 km and the value of the coin is based on the distance. While the nearest temple gets 5 points, 10 for the ones within 2 km and 15 for the shrines at 4 km,” he states.
The running club is known for being proactive in fitness and sports niche. Every morning, the group gets together to be fit and the regime includes exercises, yoga, running or cycling.
To keep the fellow runners motivated and inspired, the coordinators organise internal challenges, intra-group contests, club with other groups and take part in marathons conducted across the city and country.
For details, contact Ram Ganesh at 98844 31437.