Mumbai: One early morning a year ago, Harlina Sodhi, a senior banking executive who had just moved into an apartment that looked out at the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. heard a din outside her window: drums played, people were cheering. She looked out to find that it was the Mumbai Marathon in progress. “I was absolutely enamoured and inspired right there,” she says. “I had never even run a hundred metres before, but I decided that next year I would run and experience this for myself.”
Like thousands of others, from lifelong residents to new migrants, Ms. Sodhi is now part of a growing community eager to plug into the mood of the run, making it a one-of-a-kind event in India. She joined a gym, for strength training, and a runners’ club, Striders, that introduces aspiring participants to running in the open. And on Sunday, she will be ready to take part in her first half-marathon.
Manoj Bhagavatula, who has run races elsewhere, says that the Mumbai Marathon is a unique experience. “I have run four half-marathons before in other cities [but] you can tell by just checking out social media and other networks what people are looking forward to,” he says. “The route for instance — something marathoners are very finicky about — involves Haji Ali, Worli Seaface and the Sea Link; who wouldn’t look forward to that?” As an indicator of how popular the event is, he says that registration is open from July to end-October, but most slots are full by early August.
It wasn’t always this way, as seasoned runners like Girish Mallya remember. He, aside from running the full distance in every edition since it started in 2002, has also run endurance events in other parts of the world, including ultras. “There was not much of a running culture. You’d only see a few people practising about two months or so before the event. When it started, organisation was not great. The marathon used to begin at 7..30 and that was all wrong. Some people used to take five or six hours to finish, and in the baking sun that was punishing. Now they start much earlier and there is only an elite marathon that begins at 7.30 so that makes a lot more sense.”
One aspect in which there has been a major change he says is in participation, both of people running and those cheering. Plus, the inclusion of the Sealink has added an extra bit of magic. “It’s changed and evolved a lot over the years and you can see that with people getting out early to cheer people on and be part of the action. There has been a substantial increase in the number of half-marathon runners; the slots are full, so that in itself is a big achievement. What they haven’t been able to crack is the full marathon runners because after 14 years there are still only about 3,000 participants for the full.”
By way of comparison, Mr Mallya says he participated in the wine trail marathon in Bordeaux, in France last year and even for a relatively smaller event like that there were about seven or eight thousand participants.
“Everyone knows that the energy and crowd participation is better here than in any other race,” says Mehul Ved, who will be running his fourth Mumbai Marathon this year.
And it’s that factor, of a city coming together for a sporting event that brings out the best in it, that bring more people in each year to participate.
