Virtual marathons get popular in the city

After seeing the great response, the organisers are now gearing up for a virtual duathlon. “Chennaiites love to participate in marathons and whenever there is an event in the city, you could see a lot of registration. In the post-Covid world, things are going to change and we are not sure how any group events are going to be held. To show people how one can adapt to the changing times, we organised a virtual marathon called the social distancing team marathon. We didn’t expect a great response to the event - around 800+ people from various parts of the country participated. Two days before the main event, we did a mock virtual marathon just to see the response of people. The virtual marathon we held was for a team of seven to cover 42 km from different locations and time. Each member had to run 6 km,” says CN Paul Pradeep, founder of Venghais Tribe.

The organisers didn’t fix any rigid rules for the marathon. “One major advantage of virtual marathons is that the participant can choose to run at any time and any location. They can even run on a treadmill, inside the house, or even on the terrace. They just have to keep a track of the running distance on their phone or watch. Once they are done running, participants were asked to send the details to us. It was a different exercise for us and the marathon runners as well,” he adds.

Paul is also planning to organise a virtual duathlon in the coming days. A duathlon is an athletic event that consists of a running leg, followed by a cycling leg and then another running leg in a format similar to triathlons. “As of now, we are planning to host it virtually. We are just finalising the rules and regulations for this event.”