Like everything else, Wikipedia has an answer to this question as well. Let me do a quick copy paste and then tell you why I brought up this question at the first place.
A half marathon is a road running event of 21,097.5 meters. It is half the distance of a marathon and usually run on roads. It is a popular race for relative amateurs, long enough to be a serious challenge but not requiring the level of training of a full marathon.
Alright, so now that you know what it is, let me tell you the reason for this info and this post. It has everything to do with the latest smail that I have received. Following is the mail (just read the lines in bold to skip the details and save time):
Dear friends,
As you are already aware, Malli Mastan Babu, an alumnus of IITKGP and IIM, is world-famous for his accomplishments in the field of mountaineering. Malli Masthan Babu, completed his Bachelor Degree in Electronics from NIT, Jamshedpur (1996), M Tech from IIT Kharagpur (1998) and PGDM from IIM, Kolkata (2004). Right from the school adventurism was instilled in his blood, which made him conquer the highest peaks in all seven continents (including Mt. Everest) breaking world record.
He holds the WORLD RECORDS for being –
- The Fastest seven summiteer in the world (172 days, Jan 19 – July 10, 2006)
- The Only South Asian  to scale seven summits
He is planning to enter into Guinness Book of World Records by undertaking a Mega Marathon event in 2008 February that covers all 29 states of India in 29 consecutive days. As a prelude to the upcoming 2008 Mega Marathon, Malli Masthan Babu is undertaking half-marathon in various states this month. He has already completed his half marathon in more than 10 states.
He is at the moment in IIT (Taramani Guest House) and he would go for a Half Marathon in the campus tomorrow (November 2nd) morning from 5.30 AM to 7 AM. The Half marathon would start at GC and go up to the maingate and come back to GC and make five such rounds to be able to complete half marathon.
All interested are cordially invited to join him in this run.
warm regards,
Murty
Now, I don’t know who Mr. Murty is, but my sincere thanks to him for sending this mail to everyone in insti. I also didn’t know anything about Mr. Babu before I got the mail, but now that I know what he plans to do, I don’t want to miss the opportunity to join him tomorrow morning.
I shall run two rounds (that would be about eight kilometers) and then later when he is done with his five rounds, I will try to interview him. Let’s have some good stuff on Vatsap now. 🙂 Even shit bores you in sometime. Heh.
If anyone has a digital camera, and is free at 7:30, can he/she turn up near GC?