For an Indian runner, Nitendra Singh Rawat is quite the unorthodox breed when it comes to dealing with marathons. It's the smallest of details he likes to go over when heading into the 42 km race. The most conspicuous detail, and perhaps the most unusual one on Sunday at the Mumbai Marathon, was that he wore sunglasses for this race. The norm states that Indian athletes will use an undying will and grimy grit when running the 42.195 kms. The only accessory used is a wristwatch to time the run. Rawat on the other hand likes to eliminate on-route distractions – hence the fluorescent shades. "It's a simple thing. When the sun comes up, it gets bright and runners have to squint through the race. The easy solution is to wear sunglasses," explains Rawat's coach at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, Surender Singh Bhandari. A scientific and strategic approach is what Bhandari says his ward banks on. And it's that very mindset that helped the 29-year-old break the course record for an Indian at the Mumbai Marathon. Clocking 2:15:48 in only his second ever 42 km race, Rawat broke Ram Singh Yadav's 2012 course record of 2:16:59. The weather condition on the day turned out to be much better than anticipated. Cooler temperature (around 20 degrees on the return stretch), coupled by a gentle breeze helped in shaving off the extra minutes off a course time that’s not been breached for three years. The long shadows of the taller skyscrapers also aided the runners. Bhandari watched the race closely on the television. He watched how Rawat steadily executed the strategy planned for the event. "He was to run each kilometre in 3:15 minutes for the first 30 km. Then he was to maintain the momentum for as much as he could, and finally, being a former 5,000 metre runner, use the speed he gained from the track event to finish," explains Bhandari. The 38-year-old watched proudly as his designed strategy, which Rawat had diligently practiced during training sessions at the high altitude facility in Ooty, was impeccably executed. He was happy with the way his pace setters Mohan Singh and T Gopi had assisted the runner till the 30 km mark. The pace-setter What he didn't expect at all however, was to see Gopi steaming in behind Rawat at full speed. "Normally pace setters would leave the race at 30 km after setting the timing for each runner. Mohan did that. But Gopi continued to run the race and finished second!" exclaims the coach. The 27-year-old army man, who also trains under Bhandari, finished his own race at 2:16:15, also breaking Yadav's course record. Nonetheless, another surprise was in store for Bhandari as the third Indian to finish the race, clocking 2:17:23 was Kheta Ram, another one of his students. More important, though, was the fact that all three of Bhandari's students beat the 2:19 mark set as the qualification standard for the Rio Olympics . Not since the 1960 Rome Olympic Games have three Indian men qualified for the quadrennial event. And Bhandari gleefully gushes about how all three qualifiers are his very own students. Though Gopi's endeavour was unexpected, Bhandari had given clear instructions to mentally prepare his runners. "The message was not to bother with the 2:19 mark. He told us to focus only on beating Ram Singh Yadav's timing," says Rawat. There was also an air of desperation with which the trio arrived in Mumbai. All three were once 5,000 and 10,000 metre runners, switching only recently to the long distance road event. Rawat had already qualified for Rio, when he ran 2:18:06 at the World Military Games in South Korea . But for Gopi and Ram, Mumbai was the last chance. "We wanted to get into the Olympics for any of the three events. Whichever came first was fine. This was the last chance to qualify for marathon, and it has happened," adds Ram, for whom this was his second marathon. Gopi in turn made his debut at the marathon event. The 27-year-old earlier focused on the track event before forgoing his pace setting responsibilities during the marathon. "At 30 km when I had to drop out, I still felt fresh and I wasn't tired. So I figured that this was my chance. I just had to keep up with Nitendra. Marathon running wasn't really a big interest of mine earlier, but it is now," he mentions. From track to road Ever since Nitendra returned from South Korea, Gopi and Ram approached their coach with the desire to shift out of the middle distance races in favour of the road one. "Nitendra was the only one training then, but then Gopi and Kheta decided they wanted to train for marathons too. Nitendra's achievement inspired them to make the move," Bhandari recalls. He goes further to claim that though the decision to shift was their own, he wasn't surprised when the request came. "The three have always been good friends. They trained in track events together and lived together in the hostel. So when Nitendra moved to a different discipline, I knew the other two would follow," he adds. The three army men all came from different backgrounds to the Pune facility when Bhandari took charge of them in 2012. Rawat, an infantry Havaldar of the 6th Kumaon regiment, joined the army back in 2008, and hails from Uttarakhand. Ram, a 33-year-old Naik-Subedar form the 6th Jat regiment belongs to Khokhsar village in the Barmer district of Rajasthan. Meanwhile, Gopi, also a Havaldar and the youngest of the lot, comes from Kerala and belongs to the Artillery Centre in Hyderabad. The three also share a similarity in the financial struggles they grew up with. Rawat's home being based on the hills didn't provide a suitable geography for a vast farmland his parents could reap produce from. Water shortages at Ram's base often found his family suffer the burden of a failed crop. Gopi's parents too handled a farm until Gopi left to join the army. He makes it a point to send back a portion of his salary to support his family, but the cost of running shoes, which he has to incur almost every other month, keeps the savings to a minimum. Yet there is a new spring in each one's step after the results in Mumbai. Bhandari mentions how the improvement in all three came as a result of the healthy competition between them. "They keep pushing each other to do better. Earlier it was just Nitendra, and alone he wouldn't have been able to improve," he says. In Pune they found a base for their trade. But in Mumbai they found the tickets to the place they have been looking forward to go to: Rio. Results: Foreign athletes: Men: Gideon Kipketer (Kenya) 2:08:35 (course record), Seboka Dibaba (Ethiopia) 2:09:20, Marius Kimutai (Kenya) 2:09:39; women: Shuko Genemo (Ethiopia)2:27:50, Bornes Kitur (Kenya) 2:32:00, Valentine Kipketer (Kenya)2:34:07; Indians: Men:Nitendra Singh Rawat 2:15:48,Gopi T 2:16:15, Kheta Ram 2:17:23; women: Sudha Singh 2:39:28, Lalita Babar 2:41:55, OP Jaisha 2:43:26.
