HYDERABAD : The green campus of the University of Hyderabad played host to more than 3,000 runners on Sunday morning - 1,100 in half marathon, 1,300 in 10k and 600 in the 5k Category. The race was flagged off by the Director of Physical Education Department University of Hyderabad, Kali Rajeshkar and Dr Murali Nannapaneni President Hyderabad Runners Society.

An annual affair, the Club Run 2019 was conducted jointly by the University of Hyderabad and Hyderabad Runners. While the Half Marathon and the 10km runs were timed runs, the 5km run was a Graduation Run for Couch to 5k participants. “The Couch to 5k is scientifically designed eight-week program, aimed at people who have never run before.

Driven entirely by the volunteer efforts of Hyderabad, the objective is that, at the end of 8 weeks, by following a proper training schedule, a person who has never attempted running before, will be able to effortlessly run a distance of 5km. Hyderabad Runners started the Couch to 5k program first in 2014 and this year has seen 600 participants.

The 2019 edition kicked off at 19 locations across the twin cities. All participants of the Couch to 5k programme who completed the 5 km distance received a medal and certificate. All finishers of the Half Marathon and 10k and 5k runs received finisher medals.

A book titled ‘Community Fitness’  by Dr. Kali Rajshekar Director of Physical Education Department was also launched on this occasion. The anthropological study on Hyderabad Runners was carried out by UoH, under the supervision of Prof. N Sudhakar Rao. The study was to understandwhat keeps the Hyderabad runners together apart from obvious running activity. The study found that this is a rare untary association which is being organised for over a decade. The other finding was that runners group is emerging as an substitute for the kinship patterns with its social interaction among its members in the urban centre.