Mumbai Marathon: Magic or madness?

The Mumbai Marathon is here again and everybody in the city is running. Everybody in India is running. Or so it seems. The half marathon in New Delhi, the full marathon in Mumbai this Sunday. The numbers are just shocking. I wouldn’t know the exact figure for I’m not prone to waking up at 6am on a Sunday to watch a live telecast of lots of heads bobbing up and down. You’d be spot on to assume that I'm also not prone to waking up at 6am and running. I like to run in the evening, when it’s dark, so that when the 18-year-old Miss India aspirant runs laps around me she can’t recognize the sorry slow sod. The pitfall of the long beaked cap is that it makes me run into aunties walking briskly in their multi-colored sneakers, but I consider that a lesser embarrassment.

Running has become so popular in India over the last decade. It has also become very technical. There are shoes that count your steps and your speed. There are devices that measure your heart rate, iPods that sync with your shoes to uplink data, or is it downlink? It’s all very complicated. Personally, I like to run like I used to when I was a child. Without a care in the world, with friends chasing you as you refuse to give up the cricket bat even when you’ve been legitimately dismissed. Which is why the fun run is so much fun to watch. It’s running with friends, without the threat of losing. It's about costumes and colors. It’s about supporting a cause.

One of my favorite writers, Haruki Murakami, is also a marathon runner. He equates it with writing a novel.— Gaurav Kapur

Like my dear friend Purab Kohli who ran the Airtel half marathon in New Delhi in support of an NGO that takes care of stray dogs. He was concerned about how he would run the distance. I told him that the NGO could set the dogs loose behind him and he’d probably finish first. It was an expensive joke. I had to compensate for my apparent insensitivity by donating to his charity run.

I may not be a fan of the unearthly starting hour of the New Delhi and Mumbai marathons, and I may be a tad irreverent, but I am certainly a big fan of marathon runners.

There’s something quite magical about watching a marathon runner in full flow. It’s like poetry. It’s a sport like none other. You’re essentially battling the forces of nature and your own body. And the entire arsenal you have take to the battle to them is your mind. The rhythm of a marathon runner is akin to watching a horse gallop in slow motion. Now that may seem weird to you, but that’s what I’ve thought ever since I saw my first marathon at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The rhythm, that’s what struck me.

One of my favorite writers, Haruki Murakami (if you haven’t read "Norwegian Wood" then you’ve seriously missed out on the greatest story on love and loss ever written), is also a marathon runner. He equates writing a novel and running a marathon in his book "What I talk about when I talk about running."  Murakami also talks about the discipline, the mental strength and the sheer resilience required to run a full marathon.

A fascinating concept for me is 'the wall' all marathon runners hit. Not literally though. In Mumbai you are far more likely to fall into a crater-like pothole. It’s the mental wall Murakami is referring to. When you feel like you can't run another step, when your body’s completely given up, that’s when your mind has to take over, help you go over that wall (or around it if you’re clever) and finish the race. You can feel his pain as you flip the pages.

Now if you think that the marathon is the ultimate test of resilience and will power then I’d beg to differ and offer you one word in my defense. Triathlon!

Running, followed by swimming (in the sea) and then cycling. I’ve seen a triathlon or two, I’ve spoken to a triathalete or two, and I can tell you that they don’t call the ultimate triathlon The Ironman for nothing.

India is hosting its first ever India International Triathlon in Goa on February 14, 2010. It has six of the top 10 professional triathletes participating and has a few qualifying spots for the Ironman. So it's the real deal. I suppose Mumbai would’ve got them more support in terms of numbers, but you don’t swim in the sea in Mumbai unless you’re a fan of contracting deadly diseases. So Goa it is, which seems about right considering the top triathlons happen at very picturesque locations world over. Bali, Phuket, Hawaii, and now Goa. They also have fun runs and duathlons for people who don’t fancy the open waters, and with the sponsor support coming in I am sure it’ll become quite a destination race in the years to come.

While the Mumbai marathon has had strong sponsor support in the form of Standard Chartered bank, and is an expensive property now, (I hear the figures are close to US$2 million a year) I'm heading for the beaches of Goa next month, Murakami in hand, to be utterly impressed -- all over again.