Tata Mumbai Marathon 2024

A whopping 59,000 runners took to the streets to participate in the iconic Tata Mumbai Marathon 2024 on last Sunday.

Starting the Full Marathon from Azad Maidan at 5 AM amidst 10,711 inspired souls on a cold winter morning was a rare experience.

My heart was beating loudly with nervousness and excitement as I approached the starting point. I pressed my Garmin and tried to get into a steady rhythm in the initial few kms.

As I crossed 800 meters from the starting line, I saw a lady who had fallen in front of me. A few runners helped her to get up. She was holding her mouth as a few strains of blood came out. My mind was telling me to go ahead with the run, but my heart didn’t oblige.

I stopped momentarily to inquire about her wellbeing. She was in pain and found it difficult to stand straight. I went a few meters ahead and found a water bottle that was left behind by a runner. I grabbed the bottle and ran backwards to the lady. She took a few gulps of water and cleaned her face.

She felt better after a couple of minutes and told that she would continue running.

It was time to bid her goodbye as my Garmin inched towards the 9 min mark. I had initially thought of keeping a steady pace of 6:30/km, but that plan was derailed from the start as I finished the first km in 10 min.

But soon it dawned upon me that the purpose of running doesn’t lie in finishing the race but living by the spirit of the game. This game calls for helping your fellow runners as you go about your business.

And that initial kilometer set the tone and tempo for the rest of the distance. The heart got filled with happiness as legs gathered momentum and the next 20 KM went like a breeze.

“Bharat Mataki Jai”, “Ganpati Bappa Morya”, “Jai Siya Ram”, “Jai Shivaji”, “Har Har Mahadev” slogans by fellow runners made the atmosphere electrifying.

It was time to hit the road towards Sea Link and the cool breeze blowing across the Arabian sea welcomed us. It was time to take a few photos of this marvelous engineering masterpiece.

As I reached towards the end of the bridge, I saw a lady named Sammy who came all the way from Darjeeling to run a Full Marathon in traditional attire.

For the next 5-6 km, I saw thousands of Mumbaikars who had gathered on the roadside. Many people had brought food, juice, and beverages from their homes to distribute among the runners.

An 8-9 year old boy was standing with a plateful of oranges, two youngsters were playing drums to encourage the runners, an old lady (must be in her seventies) worked as volunteer at a water station and danced to the music being played in the background while handing out the water bottles to the runners, a sardarji opened his arms to give free hugs to anyone who wanted it, 3-4 year boys and girls stood on the roadside to clap for the participants and many more actions.

By the time I hit the 30 KM mark, lactic acid had built up considerably. I was about to hit the wall and 12 KM seemed a long way.

The sun had started to beam brightly making the run seem increasingly difficult. But the encouragement from people on the roadside kept me going. Glimpse of Iron Man Milind Soman made the suffering reduce considerably.

At 36th KM it was time to run uphill on Peddar road and many of the runners had slowed down considerably. That was the moment to dig deeper and find a new source of energy to propel forward.

Thankfully over the decade long running, I have realized that when we encourage others, we ourselves get inspired. So, I tried to motivate people who were struggling to keep pushing forward. And in turn it helped me to keep running.

For the next 6 KM, I kept inching forward patiently. Ice pack and sprinkler tunnels helped to keep the body temperature within a tolerable limit.

Finally, after a grueling 4 hr 42 min, I crossed the finish line where I found my coaches Shreyas Karnad and Deepa Nayak. Although both of them had completed their run more than an hour and half ago, they waited patiently to meet their fellow coachees.

It was now time to collect the beautiful TMM finisher medal and head towards the breakfast lounge to enjoy a hearty breakfast with friends followed by ice bath.

Final words:

It is thoroughly satisfying to be able to go through the previous 7 months of rigorous training that included 21 Half Marathons and one Full Marathon.

Training under the guidance of coaches of Runners360 helped to find consistency.

It's also a moment to thank my parents, family, running mates, friends and well-wishers for the love and support.

Marathon is a perfect metaphor of life.

As in ups and downs of life, a full marathon comes with many surprises.

So, if you want to experience life to the fullest, start preparing for marathons.

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