Kolkata Marathon

One Sunday while i was on my way to church, some roads were closed - and there were t-shirts and signs about the Kolkata Marathon. Sure enough - i saw some of them running by....and i was amazed.

for one thing, it was stinking hot. Also, you really don't see people out for a jog in Kolkata. There were work out gyms, and people would exercise/play games at the parks -but i never saw people running, except that one day for the marathon.

the other amazing thing was that people were running it barefoot...on the roads and the people that had shoes didn't have great shoes. This wasn't really too surprising, cause i'd see people without shoes a lot. for example, most of the rickshaw wallahs (the ones that really just pulled people, no bike, no motor) often times were barefoot, or if they had shoes, they were plastic sandals. Just one more example of how strong/hard working/enduring the people of Kolkata are!

i'm amazed by marathon runners anywhere, in any setting - but i was especially impressed with the kolkata marathon runners!