The marathon saw a display of awesome running talent as cooler conditions sent course records toppling and citizens made statements of their own
The marathon saw a display of awesome running talent as cooler conditions sent course records toppling and citizens made statements of their own
Once upon a time, for several Mumbaikars Ethiopia may have just been another country in Africa. Today, though, their curiosity may have been stoked just that little bit more because it was Ethiopia all the way in Sunday's marathon.
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Of the marathon
The Ethiopians made it a 1-2 in the men's section and all three Ethiopian women blitzed their way to the finish line in the full marathon. Methinks this warrants a little background knowledge about Ethiopia.
C'mon Mumbaikars, get your keyboards out and hit the google.
Watching the marathon through the years, one can see that more and more foreigners are coming in to run the event. Many of these whites, turning a distinct tomato red in the Mumbai sun are not elite runners but simply fitness fanatics and those who are passionate about running like most in the event. This is besides the sizeable number of Non Resident Indians (NRIs) who fly down for this race. The Mumbai marathon is becoming an event of all colours -ebony, brown and white. Like Cathy Freeman, brand ambassador for this year's edition stated: there is no colour in sport.
The marathon bug bites the city hard. At the crack of dawn, the man at the ticket window looked amused seeing runners buying tickets to Churchgate station (from where they would walk on to the start at CST). All the best, he stated even as he punched a ticket, and simulated a running action. Simply everybody was in on the action on that cool, Sunday morning.
There was one BEST bus allowed to ply all through the 42-km route. That was the open deck media bus that tailed the runners, with photographers taking pictures of the action and journalists scribbling furiously. The driver of this bus, was Raju Mhatre who said, "I have been driving the media bus for five years now. I was given special training in the beginning about how to drive for the marathon." Throughout the route, Mhatre had to listen to constant instructions about driving, "go slow, go fast" as photographers wanted him to go slow so that they could take pictures and sometimes he was urged to go fast when he was too close to the pilot car. "Sometimes, I wish I could run the marathon instead of driving," he said with a smile adding, "Raju Mhatre, marathoner."
Some time after the full marathon started, the lead pack broke away from the rest, running near the NCPA apartments at the Oberoi-Trident turn. At that time, there were some shouts about a dog that had come in between the runners. Shouts were heard that a canine had disrupted the runners, but there was no canine in sight. Maybe, the adrenalin surging through the crowds resulted in the excitement. Whatever it was, there was only the two-legged pack eating up the course, hungrily and setting a good pace for the race that eventually saw a course record in both the men and women's sections.
One could see a tense Hugh Jones, race director riding pillion on the mo'bike, following the race. He was advising the driver of the media bus to slow down near the Wilson College stretch on the first lap. Then, there was elite athletes co-ordinator Ian Ladbroke pillion on yet another mo'bike. All those days of preparation and tension and this was it, the race had begun, the athletes were off, the band was playing and the clock was ticking. One can be sure when it is all over, Hugh Jones feels like a 26-tonne load (for 26 miles) has been lifted off him. Only to return the next year and see the race through all over again.
There were several speed breakers through the course but of course, there was no speed break for the elite runners, those magnificent men and women and their flying feet. Even as somebody shouted; speedbreaker, speedbreaker another onlooker laughed, "that's for cars not for the runners, they will not slow down."
The course was strewn with Styrofoam glasses that runners drank from and tossed on the road. As the elite athletes ran, with not a care in the world only looking to make this race their, their feet hit the glasses crushing them and the sound crunch, crunch, crunch crackled as the sea of Styrofoam crumbled -- defeated and surrendered to the fastest feet in the world.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
As the athletes ran along the Bandra Worli Sea Link, (BWSL) one could see water stations on that stretch, unlike last year when the runners had gone without hydration on the Link. There were a couple of toll personnel who looked awed as the elite runners ran past, the distance had certainly not taken a toll on them and a sign saying: speed limit: 50 kmph blinked almost in irony as the Africans flew past. Meanwhile, it was 8.40 a. m. then, the darkness had bowed to sunlight. The beams glanced off the sea below, as if doing a dance of deference to world's fastest. Even those tall steel girders on the sides, seemed small in comparison to that towering running talent. As the photographers lay in a heap on the side of the Sea Link trying to get a shot of those legs, they were in danger of getting run over by the African-obile. Meanwhile, for those few minutes, even the awesome Sea Link seemed humbled.
There were a couple of runners running shirtless, eliciting shouts of, "hey Salman Khan" from the crowd. Another runner had bunches of dried leaves taped on to him maybe, for some kind of statement. One runner had a t-shirt, which read: Why drink and drive, when you can smoke and fly?' which one thinks applied to the bunch ahead - they were smokin' hot and flying close to the ground.
At the post-race conference Ian Ladbroke said that all the men's timings broke the previous course record, which was fantastic in relatively, "hot and hilly conditions." The women's winners said that they were helped by the slightly windy conditions. Meanwhile, the Indian men's winners at 2: 21 and beyond seemed slightly disappointed because they could not meet their own targets of 2: 18, which was the qualifying time for the London Olympics 2012 (though the Mumbai marathon is not the only race for qualification). Though the Indian men seem to be pushing the top with their timings, the women are far behind. While the top women runners here were inside 2.30, the Indian top three were over 3 hours. A massive 40 minutes behind the leaders. Yet, given the social hurdles women in sport face, maybe it is a matter of time before the Indian women catch up with the world in the marathon event. Push the pace, ladies.
As yet another marathon is behind us, we have seen controversies, road bumps and some opposition (rumbles of athletics officials and the BMC not supporting the event) were heard. Yet, despite everything Sunday proved that the spirit behind the event still rules. For one day of the year, Mumbaikars put their heart and sole (pun intended) as they make the roads their own. Eight years and eight marathons, runners are wiser now and more serious, the event is growing in stature. Now this city must ensure that these African champions do what they wish to do as they said at the conference post their wins:u00a0 come back to Mumbai next year.
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