Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 2: Feeling pain over the growing menace of drug abuse amongst the youth of Punjab and J&K, two young runners of Jammu Runners Group (JRG) namely Mukesh Kumar and Abhishake Gupta ran a distance of more than 200 kilometers from Amritsar to Jammu for two days to spread awareness about general fitness and drug abuse amongst youth.
Both Mukesh and Abhishake are young but experienced runners who have participated in many long distance running events viz Half Marathons, Full Marathons and Ultra Runs including Trail and Stadium Runs.
They started their run on August 31 at 4 am from Golden Temple, Amritsar after paying obeisance at golden temple and were soon joined by the runners of Amritsar Roar Runners, Amritsar who accompanied them up to the outskirts of the holy city.
Both Mukesh and Abhishake also unveiled the group T-shirt of Amritsar Roar Runners before leaving Amritsar.
Both of them braved hot and humid conditions during their run and covered around 89 kilometers on first day.
During their run, they were greeted and cheered by many youth who were all praise for them on learning the reason for them to have taken up this arduous task which required too much grit and stamina. It is pertinent to mention here that they had no support from Administration on the first day and ran on self help and mutual support. They halted their day one near Gurdaspur, covering around 89 kilometers in very hot conditions.
Then on second day, the duo again started at 4 am from Gurdaspur and entered J&K at around 10:15 am.
Both were joined by the runners of Kathua Distance Runners at Kathua who greeted them and ran with them for almost 5 kms. They were also greeted by some showers and cool breeze as a much needed respite from heat and humidity.
The pleasant weather and rain showers helped them to maintain a decent and steady pace.
They were later joined by some of the members of Jammu Runners Group (JRG) at Palli Morh Kathua who accompanied them till the end.
On reaching Jammu, Abhishake and Mukesh were welcomed by JRG and JAC members.
They are first among Jammu runners to have covered the distance between these two holy cities in two days, running almost 100 kilometers per day.
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