No winner but no whiners either

A Kenyan won the Sunday run and to be brutally frank, Mumbai, which breaks into ’Dus bahaane’ be it Ganapati, Dandiya or the end-w...

A Kenyan won the Sunday run and to be brutally frank, Mumbai, which breaks into ’Dus bahaane’ be it Ganapati, Dandiya or the end-winter Marathon, held no austere pretensions of discerning Daniel Rono’s 2:12.03 course-record or raving about his rally from Babulnath onwards.

The mood at the 3rd Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon was that of a carnival with celebrities, confetti, costumes, cameras and cheer-leaders, and not many would claim they had missed Joseph Sugut from last year.

The idea was to enjoy the party as hosts – by partying literally – since the African mastery over the event leaves little room to celebrate our own clocked timings.

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Consolation claps are what we can offer, and we might as well do that to the tune of some peppy music. While the infant marathon, babbling with excitement, takes its time to mature.

While hordes of ordinary runners succesfully graduated from the dream runs to the half marathons, others progressed from 21 to finishing 42 this year, and even the course records were rewritten. But the changing attitude towards the long run was best summed up by Piyush Mehta who trudged back at the stroke of twelve.

Cramping badly and limping towards the medical station, Mehta croaked, ’’I don’t know why I put myself through this every year ?’’ Attended to promptly and after some fluid flowed back in his system, Mehta managed a smile while saying, ’’Next year maybe I should start practicing earlier and with more focus, so I can boast of my timings.’’ This marathon’s already growing up.

Street kids make a killing in a field littered with bottles

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Mumbai: The men’s winner Rono Daniel went home with $30,000. The women’s champ Mulu Setoka got $20,000. On the sidelines Chand Mubarak was richer by Rs 700 while Babu had managed a personal best of Rs 550.

With mercury rising and body fluids diping, the ragpickers at VT made a killing. 31,000 exhausted runners with parched throats meant a finish line littered with empty mineral water bottles. Though there were no exhaustive statistics available but the Chand and Babu say that they have had a good day at the office.

It was a surprising start to the day for Chand who wondered ’’why so many people have gathered here’’. Didn’t he know it was the marathon and also the Greatest Race of the World on? He shakes his head and says, ’’Bhagwan jaane kya ho raha hai, pur dhanda accha hai’’.