A short distance cycling event organized by Columbia Asia to promote healthy living.
Columbia Asia is organized a Cyclothon in Bangalore on the 1st of May 2011. It is an initiative by the hospital to promote healthy living among people. It is going to be a 10 km bicycling event from Kanteerva Stadium to Columbia Asia Hospital, Yeshwantpur. To be a part of this event, one could register online here : https://www.facebook.com/columbiaasiacyclothon
Kanteerava Stadium to Yeswanthpur, Bengaluru
Sun, 01 May 2011
Cycled my way to IIM on Bannerghatta Road up to Kanteerava Stadium. Lots of enthusiasm was seen at the venue with many having brought their cycles and many others who rented ones to participate in this event. People from various walks of life and age participated, giving it all the meaning and purpose. Each registered rider was given a T-shirt and unique number to be identified. By 7 am, about 1000 people ranging from 5 to 84 gathered at the Kanteerva Stadium for the cyclothon. The Transport Commissioner Bhaskar Rao with veteran athlete Reeth Abraham and Dr Nandakumar Jairam, Chairman, Columbia Asia Hospital flagged off Cyclothon at 7:30 am. It was a hassle free ride while riders kept covering distances, along the route volunteers provided water in small plastic bottles for hydration to the participants.
The event was scheduled from 6:30 am to 8:30 am but it started at 7:30 am and finished at 9:30 am. It took hardly 30 minutes for all the participants to reach the end point at Columbia Asia Referral Hospital at Yeswanthpur where all riders were directed to the basement to securely lock-n-park the bicycles. Refreshments were provided while all riders gathered and organizers gave away gift coupons to few riders at random while they gave special mention to people behind this event.
The cyclothon was organized very well with traffic police providing assistance in handling the traffic for the cyclists to pass and medical vans to provide assistance to any of the participants. A big thank you not just to the people involved in organizing the event but to also all those who volunteered along the route providing water for hydration to the participants.
Few observations of the event are below:
- At the starting point, participants were give participation number stickers to be worn for identification. The backside of these were thrown around by few participants.
- Along the way, all participants were offered small plastic bottles with water for hydration. Few participants threw the empty plastic bottles on the road side.
Just cycling isn’t enough, cycling responsibly makes a difference. Although the distance of 10km seemed short for intermediate and experienced riders, the whole event was taken it good spirit. A commendable and appreciable effort of organizing such a well planned and executed event to promote healthy living. The google map below shows the route taken starting from point A (IIM Bannerghatta Road). The cyclothon started from Point B (Kanteerava Stadium) to Point C (Columbia Asia Referral Hospital at Yeswanthpur).
Distance covered today was total of 40 kms.
