17 October,2026 07:43 AM IST | Mumbai | Hemal Ashar
At the Boston Marathon last year; Dr Assrani with his Chicago medal; Years ago in Mumbai. Pics/By Special Arrangement
A dentist striving to give his patients the perfect smile cannot stop smiling himself. Borivli's Dr Pritam Assrani is just back in Mumbai, post clocking a zippy 2:59:13 in the Chicago marathon (42-km) run on October 11. The 48-year-old runner has gone under three hours in the race, which is one of eight majors (called the Big 8) in the marathon world.
The time is runtastic fantastic achieved by extremely few, and a major benchmark for competitive amateur runners. A sub-three-hour marathon is widely considered a very impressive achievement - a rarity achieved by only roughly 5 per cent of all amateur marathon finishers. The average marathon finish time globally is roughly 4:30, 4:20-4:25 for men and 4:45-4:50 for women. That makes three hours a significant jump on the speedometer.
The dentist started running two decades ago. "I used to run on the treadmill for one hour at the gym, and then took it ahead, going to Sanjay Gandhi National Park for a run, where I am a regular. I have about 80 km running volume per week on average." His first event, the Standard Chartered Mumbai Half Marathon (21 km), was in January 2007.
Assrani had run overseas earlier, qualifying for and running the Boston Marathon 2025, with Chicago being his second overseas outing. Assrani recalled with a laugh, "Chicago was very different from hot and humid Mumbai, and when we runners started at 7.40 am in Chicago, it was cool. Chicago felt like a hill station with its temperatures. I was there six days earlier to adjust to the time zone."
The start point of any marathon means different things to different runners. Assrani said, "I keep calm, run my own race, and remember that breathing anchors you and to lean on the people cheering for you on the streets of Chicago. I had a goal of going below the three-hour mark, and it was in fact the goal of my training plan, having run 03:00:03 in Boston last year.'
Running in Chicago, was, this father of two 10-year-old twin boys said, "Crazy! There were so many people lining up to cheer for runners⦠not a dull moment. Although touted as flat and fast, the Chicago marathon course has 36 turns, so you end up running nearly half a mile more. They call it the Windy City, and I am sure that label is well-earned, but there were always so many runners around me at the three-hour pace I think they shielded me from the wind if any!"
Post the race and back home in Mumbai, it was time for some introspection. Balancing root canals and running schedules, cavities and kilometres, you get that drift can be tough. The doc explained, "I try to go to bed by 10.30 pm and wake up at 5 am every day to finish my training before I head to the clinic. I try to plan my training for the week in advance, which helps the most."
Message moves
Fuel for fitness, he said, "Is water and electrolytes on a daily run, and carbs on long runs. I am a vegetarian and don't eat onion/garlic either. I try to consume adequate protein with dairy and whey/plant protein supplements. Running is for everyone, like marathon great Eliud Kipchoge says. I want to tell the digital-obsessed generation, âWhatever you do, do it for yourself; not for likes on social media. Keep learning from your mistakes.'"
