Mumbai: The Coastal Road, connecting Marine Drive to Bandra, was one of the welcome additions to the city last year, but it won’t be a part of the route for the 20th edition of the Tata Mumbai Marathon. Race director Hugh Jones has confirmed that the course being used on Sunday, Jan 19, is one that runners who have competed in previous editions of the World Athletics Gold Label race will be more than familiar with.
“Behind all the construction, the roads that we’re using are very, very similar. They’re different surroundings, but we’re following a route which we’ve become comfortable with over many years in outline,” he said. Using the Coastal Road would have undoubtedly had a drastic impact on the race. While it would have turned into a significantly flatter proposition for runners, it would also have meant excluding a part that’s become one of the TMM’s hallmarks, which in turn, Jones, pointed out, would have diminished spectator participation.
“It would be an awful lot of fairly urban, concrete sort of thing, running on that coastal road. I don’t think you’re going to get many people spectating. So it’s not something that we would be enthusiastic about,” Jones said. “Personally, I would be disappointed if we forewent the Pedder Road experience. It is something of a feature to the marathon. For the elite athletes, it’s really something. For the mass runners, it’s really tough. But they can feel pretty proud of themselves when they negotiate it in such a way that they come out good.” This year’s edition has drawn an all-time high of 63,561 participants, race promoters said, with 12,167 of them, including elite international runners, set to compete in the marathon (42k).
Ideally, Dr Santosh Kumar Dora would be gearing up to run the half marathon, something he has faithfully done at every TMM edition since 2012. But the Asian Heart Institute cardiologist will have to miss out on this occasion after being handed the role of medical director for the event. “I’m sad as well as happy; sad as I am not able to participate in the marathon this year, but happy because I have a new role to play,” Dr Dora said, assuring participants that they were in safe hands.
