Mumbai Marathon 2006

4 hr 42 min!

Almost a year of waiting to break the 4 hr barrier and attempting to wrest the family record from bada bhai, but quite a humbling failure. Those were my thoughts during the race.

First the guys from Indian Express approached me after spotting me finish and seeing my bandanna. Atleast they knew who Manju was and were curious. This was one of the major motivations for the run. That alone washed away any misgivings I had had during the race. They listened to me patiently and made notes. I only saw the article this morning and noticed just one inaccuracy. I did tell them that my own football record was largely unillustrious and I just ran around mostly, which is why I only run these days. They did laugh at it, but the article doesn’t reflect that. But then they gave Manju more than 2 columns, without anyone asking and they stuck to the right facts about Manju (his uprightness, his nature and the fact that his family and us want justice to be done. So THANK YOU INDIAN EXPRESS for this. THANK YOU SANDEEP, SUDHIR and the photographer.

Now for the run!
The day began very early, since Ravikiran was running in the half marathon. So we decided to skimp on our own taxi money and join them. Saw a lot of young people this time and more people for the marathon than perhaps last year. There were also the mandatory pretty young things, but this time we were out for timing and honestly did not pay attention to any such thing.

There were the assorted army guys, the athletes, but not too many people from the Sappers or we did not see them. We do recognize a few of the those fleet footed gentlemen. Then there were the navymen with INS VIRAT caps, the army men from the ASI, the yuppies from MUMBAI, lots of sportspeople from various institutes, etc. One ragpicker called out for me and said, Hey Uncle, aaj ke racing match me na, first aane ka. Best of luck! We said thank you and thought that it is a good sign. This time, they almost had a running start. We promptly took off. 1km in 3 min 55 secs, 2nd km in 7 min 57 secs, 3rd km in 12 mins 45 secs, 4th in 17 mins. We thought we should slow down a little. Didn’t know whom to tag. Did shout and wave to all RFLers who were running like they do. Steadily. We have a style difference. Finally when I made the turn off Marine Drive, I had done 6 km in 28 mins. That is a good pace by my own standards.

Since I had already done the Peddar Road stretch on Friday, I did not have much trouble negotiating the incline, which is a frequent undoer of most runners. At the halfway mark, I had taken less than a hr. In fact at 12 km, I had taken 58 mins. My split timings as on the cert are

14.1 km 1 hr 10 mins
23.2 km 2 hr 3 mins
32.5 km 3 hr 17
Finish or 42.1 4 hr 42

Pace 8.98 km per hr

What it does not say is that I did 31 km in 3 hrs. That by the time I returned from the Bandra reclamation, I was well on my way to giving up, since the heat was unbearable. Bhasker, one of those kind souls urged me on while he was still making his way to the last stretch before the U turn, saying that I know this is the toughest part, Don’t give up. Keep running. But my man for the day is Deepak, Vijay's pal, who simply stuck to me from kms 26 or so till about 32, ensuring that I didn’t stop, dropping his pace for me and being a true runner. Thanks to him, I did finish.

There were some very touching memories. There were some angelic kids along the road in Prabha Devi who were extending their hands out to me and asking me to touch their hands as if I were some star athlete. I was almost falling off, but then how can you deny these kids. If I had had the energy, I would have hugged each one of them. They were so kicked and exclaimed in Marathi, Gujarati. Hindi & English when I did. I felt like the man who wears his red underwear outside. There were the rare few who did read my bandanna and exclaimed, Arre Manju kaun hai! There were the tourists from England along Worli Seaface in front of the Worli Milk Dairy, who exclaimed keep it up, yeah! Then there were the dignified Mumbai high society complete with purple scarf around the straw hat and dark sunglasses who were applauding, till I crossed them. All this makes ascending flyovers easy. There were several families out on Peddar Road who cheered my number along. There were people who brought their own juices and sealed plastic water glasses along and were handing them out. There was even the occasional policeman who applauded. There were fellow participants from other countries in the opposite direction, who still had more miles to go than I did and cheerfully urged me on. There was this cute girl of about 5 or 6 years, who was screaming from the balcony of her 7th floor house just after Peddar road, Keep it up, Well done. First I only looked up and when she waved, she was delight personified when I waved back. I hope they put kids only on the route next year. I will definitely cut my timing by 15 mins!

Mumbai Rocks.

A sore point this yr was that in the last 6 km, there were hardly any water stops except for a medical tent on Chowpatty. But then Mumbai being itself, a Malayali auntie had taken it upon herself to refill two 1.5 l bottles with nice, cool water from her home and was supplying them to runners. Her husband was refilling them, darting in and out of the house, while she stood in the sun, holding them out. Since I was going real slow, I had a lot of time to notice all this. Then there the guys who handed out bananas and water. I had a load of glucose, water and electral, but nothing helped, not even a toilet break. And I had never taken one in my entire running history, during a race. Hope the organizers return to the original timings next year.


Deepak and myself had resorted to walking till the last 2 km from about the 36th km or so, till Bhasker and Vijay caught up. They gently prodded us and boy, we took off. All of us finished within minutes of each other around 4 hr 42 mins. While I tried to regain my breath by sitting on the road divider, the IE guys caught up and that is how the above article happened.

The best Indian men were at 2 hr 12 min or so. Sunita Godara who is a famous Indian marathon runner was behind me at the 23.2 km mark, running with another guy. But she ran with the pace of a professional. She finished in 4 hr 2 min, the 6th woman amongst Indians. The best Indian woman was 3 hrs and 2 min.

I was 143rd overall and 61st in my age group for men (215th & 180th for the same, last yr). My guess is that roughly 25% of the 142 above me, were not Indians. And then there were the strong women finishers, mostly professionals. There were a few seasoned Indian runners, who could easily be spotted by their pace and style. I did see the women finishers. So I know that the future can only get better. I am getting there, but not as fast as I would want.

Next yr, since I expect to train in Madras, maybe I will do better. Will keep hoping & running, till then.

Two thoughts before I close. One, the idea of the bandanna was born out of a desire to keep the memory of Manju alive and not let it fade away. Second, I had planned to raise funds for Parivaar and mailed a group of like minded friends to contribute to it. We have managed to do better than we planned on both counts.

Thanks to Sweety, Thangam, RFL.

Manju RIP

Thanks to everyone involved.