Before a crimson sun, unceremoniously toppled from his perch the previous evening, rises angrily from the Bay of Bengal, a group of people — some young and others young at heart — would head to the Akkarai beach on East Coast Road, on select days. Every Tuesday and Saturday, this group would assemble around 5 a.m. at Sholinganallur and run down ECR Link Road, before disappearing into one of the lanes off ECR that lead to the beach.
A resident of the area, I am accustomed to seeing men and women, in complete running gear, taking this stretch. In all probability, I had seen these runners, but they would not have struck me as a well-organised group that trains regularly, in a systematic manner, under the guidance of a physical trainer. They would not have struck me as a bunch that could solve my longstanding fitness problem — more of an angst than a problem. Unknown to me, they have been doing all that I have wanted to do, right in my neck of the woods, for the last one year.
OMR Dreamers, a chapter of Dream Runners, covers the IT Expressway, and it was formed in April 2015. Since then, it has been drawing the fitness-conscious from Navalur to Perungudi. Some come from areas proximate to OMR, including Velachery. Members are also found in faraway areas such as Vandalur.
P.V. Bharadwaj, who lives in Bollineni Hillside, behind Global Hospitals, is the chapter head of OMR Dreamers.
He tells me what I had been missing for a year.
“We run from Sholinganallur to the Akkarai beach and back. Sometimes, we run inside the scenic Bollieneni Hillside. We run on the earthern road along the Buckingham Canal, off the ECR Link Road, that leads to the ISKCON temple. We run on a section of the Thoraipakkam-Pallikaranai Radial Road abutting the Pallikaranai Marsh,” he says.
The group has an internationally-acclaimed, Reebok-trained trainer, Anitha.
“We collect a small amount from each member to pay the trainer,” says Bharadwaj.
The group meets three days a week, and every time, around 20 to 30 runners turn up.
“There are over 500 members on our Facebook page. Fifty to sixty of them are active and come for the runs,” says Bharadwaj.
The group is open to having more runners on board. Anyone interested in joining OMR Dreamers has to turn up at ECR Link Road at 5 a.m., on Tuesday or Saturday, “with their running shoes and a bottle of water.” Bharadwaj says, “People who seek to sell products on the group’s page are not welcome.”
For more details, call Bharadwaj at 9840084050.
