Prajwal Hegde/TNN
 
Bangalore, Jun 1: Over the years, Bangalore has assumed many titles: Silicon valley, bean town, pub city or, quite simply, the garden. There have been uncharitable comments too about its attitude, which often borders on indifference.

On Sunday morning, however, about the time the milkman rang your doorbell, the country’s IT capital put on a show of staggering proportion. With apologies to Cliff Richard, Bangalore put on her running shoes and pounded away her blues. As far as numbers go, organizers of the Sunfeast World 10K Bangalore lost count at 23,000. The size of the field was only the beginning. The real story was the triumph of the spirit. Like one of the tees said: “Make every step count.”

The run had many faces to it, most notably the beauteous Deepika Padukone. There were people of all ages, 70-plus and under-10, and from all walks of life, running for reasons as different as fitness and fair play, and causes that ranged from AIDS awareness to animal rights and childcare and cancer. Some ran barefoot, others in low-range canvas, their brothers turned up in high-tech shoes with chips that record distance and time. There were costumes too. The Kathakali dancer, the gals in boxing gloves, the wheelchair participant and the dhoti-clad artiste in a Mr India-meets-Ghajini look.

One of the biggest motivating factors to complete the run was the finisher tees. Ten km is a long distance, it seems especially so when you’re battling the course more than embracing it. It’s always one foot in front of the other, however. Sometimes the next step, the big one, is a mental effort more than a physical one, every finisher will tell you that. That’s just where the city triumphed, on a bright Sunday morning when Bangaloreans traded sleep for running shoes.