|
Race Report Mumbai Marathon
Compiled by Patrick D. Moonasar
Date: 20 January 2019
Place: Mumbai India
Start time: 05h30
Cut off: 6h30m
Route: Relatively Flat with a few hills; 21km out and back along marine drive and over Rajiv Ghandi Chowk (flyover)
Participants: greater than 46 000 for: 10 km; 21km and 42km.
IAAF Gold Event
I decided to run the Mumbai marathon held on 20 January 2019, as I was travelling to India two weeks before the race - for work and attending a wedding in India thereafter. After the two weeks of touring and late nights (mistake 1), I travelled to Mumbai from Delhi for the marathon on 18 January 2019. A friend from India accompanied me for moral support. Mumbai is a bustling metropolis with a population of over 18.41 million people, so organising a marathon in that city will always prove to be challenging for the race organisers. This however, did not deter the organisers of this 16th edition of the race. Three key issues influenced the hosting of a successful race: (i) the race started early (05h30); (ii) all the roads for the race were closed and (iii) water tight security was rendered by the Mumbai Police.
I thought I had figured out the starting point of the race so I booked accommodation at a good hotel (I wanted to make sure I did not get any food poisoning etc), which I thought was close to the race start. It turned out to be 26.8Km – 1h20 minutes away by car (yep traffic is chaotic in Mumbai- mistake number 2).
My friend and I left the hotel at 04h00 to get to the start of the race, arriving at 05h00, luckily at that time of the morning the roads were less busy (that is all relative!). Before getting to the start line, our race numbers were scanned and verified using cell phones linked to the data base of all the participants (posh). This slowed flow of the runners into the start but it was well managed. I also realised that they split up the start venues and times for each of the race distances (10km; 21km; 42km), more interestingly they had a separate start time and parallel demarcated lane for the elite runners (definitely not me: sub 2h30 marathoners).
The race started at 05h30. We were seeded according to our expected time of finishing (I modestly predicted a 4h15m finish), I was allocated zone D (mistake 3). The race organisers allocated official race pacers – interestingly almost 5 of the approximately 10 are comrades runners (credentials on their profile in the race book). I was silently hoping to finish at sub 4 hours. I checked the suggested race pacing charts which states that to achieve this we were supposed be at 1h55m at the 21km mark and about 2h48 at 30km mark. The proposed kilometre pace by the race pacer for sub 4 was between 5m30s-5m40s. I expected our seeded batch to be lined up one after the other like in comrades and two oceans, but it was not the case. This was a mat to mat race- great I thought! we can learn from the Indians, however we were all split up and started at different times, so chasing the sub 4-hour pacer was difficult ( he was not in my Zone), due to mistake 3.
At the beginning of the race the weather was perfect, a cool 18 degrees Celsius and the crowd was manageable without the 10km and 21km runners. Due to the separate batches it allowed us to have an even stride, but I realised I had chosen a “slower” batch as runners were running around 6m15s a kilometre. The air was fresh (very different from the New Delhi’s polluted air), it helped keep me awake (I was tired as I also slept late the night before).
We started in the dark (winter in India) at the Shivaji Chhatrapatti Maharaj Train terminus (a UNESCO world heritage site). From there we ran along the beach on Marine Drive, I kept glancing at my Garmin (230) watch as I knew the sub 4 hour pacer had long gone, so I tried to keep the pace as per the chart between 5h40 and 5h30, I had difficulty seeing the digits on my watch (without reading glasses). The streets were well lit for running, but it was still difficult for me to read the digits on my watch, so my pace could have been unintentionally slower in some initial segments of the race.
The water tables (recharge stations as they were called) were well stocked: small water bottles, some rehydration juices- in boxes; oranges and biscuits. The race organisers declared the race a green zone, so there were plenty of recycling bins throughout the race. Furthermore, participants were running to raise money for several non-governmental organisations and charitable causes. Whilst I am sure that the race organisers made attempts to encourage both male and female athlete’s, approximately 9 out of 10 runners for the 42km (only observed this race as I participated in this category) where male. Those female participants that entered though, were seasoned marathoners, almost all of those I noticed, passed me.
Most of the runners were running almost silently throughout the race; with the occasional few chanting and singing. All along the route there were rows of people and well wishes (note that the Mumbai marathon is India’s premier event and I am told Asia’s largest marathon). I did bump into a few South Africans along the way who were there to use the race as a training run. At almost every 5 kilometre of the race there were live performances with people either singing dancing and playing music- drumming etc. Large screen TVs were also erected to advertise products and inspire runners. A real carnival atmosphere.
I ran over the Rajv Ghandi Chowk flyway (a bridge that links one part of Mumbai with the other). At this stage of the race about 18 kms in I could now see the digits on my watch and I realised I was off the sub 4 hour marathon pace. When I got to 21km mark it was 1h59m. We turned at this stage and ran past some the of the informal dwellings. Throngs of people came out to support us, under the watchful eyes of the Mumbai police - who also took some photos of the marathoners. At about 26 km, we swung back onto the beach road and ran a small loop to turn around again toward the start with the beach at our right hand side. At this stage of the race - I felt the tiredness from the 2 weeks of late nights, starting to take its toll on me. I tried to keep the pace below 5m40s per kilometre but started to loose it as I dipped over the 6m per kilometre pace. I decided at this stage not to chase the sub 4 hour target and just enjoy the rest of the race. I did run a steady average 6min5s pace from there on. The crowds at this stage had really grown and were very encouraging and motivating. The drummers came into their element and were performing at full blast. I moved onto the 40km mark. At this stage the humidity levels were high and I kept throwing water on me to stay cool. The one interesting thing was that the race markers for each kilometre recurred about 3 times during that specific kilometre before the next kilometre appeared. This made the next Kilometre take forever to appear. So finally in the last kilometre, the race organisers started the count down from 400m, then 300m then 200m then 100m. This was agonizing, as the last kilometre is always psychologically taxing. I crossed the line at 04h08m. Our medals were handed out in a marquee, a little away from where we had finished. Interestingly we got two medals clipped to one another. One medal was for finishing the other was to present to that one person who inspired us - yep very moving indeed……
Ed~ Thank you for taking us on your journey Patrick!
|
