Stuff I wrote for my college campus newspaper - 5

The city that ran

By Sanket ‘left breathless’ Kambli

A billboard screamed ‘Run Mumbai Run’ and the whole of Mumbai seem to have taken it very seriously, as a huge chunk of this city, turned up for this year’s edition of Mumbai Marathon. This year’s marathon had a similar format like the last one. It had dream run of 7km, half marathon of 21kms, and full marathon of 42kms. Dream run saw first timers sweat it out with pro’s, running the half and full marathon’s respectively. This marathon saw people from all walks of life say, celebrities(Sachin Tendulkar, Salman Khan), and stars to ‘dabbawalas’ and underprivileged kids, to women folk run together. The proceedings of this race are proposed to go to the tsunami relief fund. While the pro’s had only winning on their minds, the amateurs were just thinking of improving their time or stamina, whereas some were into it for charity purposes( for tsunami victims, HIV patients, anit-smoking, anit-piracy, tree conservation) so most of them walked more than they ran, and some were into it because of their peers. The full marathon saw the afro’s bag top honors in men’s event with Julius Sugut of Kenya leading them all, while the top two in women’s category were also from Africa, the third women was from Russia. But that didn’t mean the Indians disappointed the home crowd, as the half marathon saw Indians finish on the podium. In men’s category Deepchand (ASI, Pune) lead the home front, with Jagannath Lakde (ASI) and P Nagendra (Madras Regiment) following him, while in women’s Tegla Loroupe (Kenya), finished first followed by Madhuri Garnule (Maharashtra), Khamkumari Goswami (UP). The runners in spite of being tired were constantly cheered by just about everyone; along the whole distance, eventually many ended pushing their limits. This event will surely become a much anticipated event, and that is not just because of the celebrity factor. I hope to meet you in the next edition, as I have already started my preparations for it.