For more than a week, the smog in Delhi was posing a serious challenge to the organisers of the 10th Airtel Delhi Half-Marathon. But as the atmosphere has brightened up, both literally and metaphorically, attention can now shift to the participants.
While the centre of attention would definitely be the major international stars taking part, the most heartening story from the event is the participation of differently-abled runners including paralympians in the event.
As this race serves as a platform for not just testing your athletic ability but also for promoting causes, many would be running to make a positive statement about dealing with disability.
One of the participants who is running simply for the joy of it is Sagar Baheti, a visually-handicapped engineer from Bangalore.
Sagar was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease, a type of muscular degeneration that leads to legal blindness, in 2013. For many, this would have pushed them in a corner, but for him, this spurred him to greater physical activity, mainly running.
"I didn't have a background of running at all but I have been running now for 3 years. I got into running, because, as my fate had it, I started losing my vision and couldn't play sports that I really loved. I stopped playing cricket as well as squash because of my low vision. Missing some physical activity to keep myself fit, I started running. I am also a little competitive by nature so when I started running, I wanted to become competitive in that also," Baheti explained.
Life must be tough for anyone with the kind of restrictions that Sagar has but things got worse for him earlier this year when he suffered a terrible sky-diving accident in Spain which caused a serious cervical spine injury leaving him bed-ridden. But even this wasn't enough to stop him and in a few months time, he is back to run the full 21-kilometer distance of the half-marathon.
"I was in such a state that I couldn't even move my hands and legs and had to be fed even for a couple of months. So, at that time, the first focus was just being able to get back to the normal routine. But you know how the mind is, once I started walking again, I thought I need to do more now. At one point, one month back I felt I have to run again," he states proudly.
While Sagar is running as an enthusiast with a cause, to promote blind cricket in India, he will have for company some established Paralympians. Two of them, T Mariyappan and Varun Bhati, are Arjuna awardees and would be taking part to inspire others.
Mariyappan explains his reason for partaking thus: "I am an athlete and I feel participation in such an event only helps me get to know how many people are willing to come out early in the morning to run. It's a motivation in itself to see enthusiasm of thousands of people coming together to run for a cause."
Varun also has similar views.
"My motivation is to inspire those who are taking part in this race and explain to them more about Paralympics and how to get involved with it."
For all three participants mentioned above, this half-marathon serves as a good platform for spreading their message of not letting any disability block your path. "I am going to be there and supporting each of the participants in the disabled category. They have had the courage to take up this challenge and I will be rooting for each of them. Also, I wish to create awareness about paralympics through this platform as our country has a lot many talented para athletes and I feel they need to come to the fore and get recognised and support," was Mariyappan's response when asked about the value of the event.
Varun took it forward in his reply.
"When people see that even Paralympians are also doing well, and the kind of preparations that are putting in, they will feel inspired."
But the best reply came from Baheti who said: "Everybody faces some challenges in their life. No one's life is absolutely perfect but some physical challenges can make it harder. In general, it requires a lot of willpower to take up the challenge of running 21 kilometers and completing it. And when you do this while having other limitations, I think it does definitely send out a strong message that if you are really focused on your goals and have a strong willpower to pursue it, you can do anything."
That should be the final word.