Mumbai Half Marathon, 2025
Feb 2, 2025 - Second 5k of the year
One of the first things I did when I booked my tickets to and from Mumbai was to look up upcoming races there in January. With a trail run at the Bengaluru Mountain Festival coming up at the end of January, and a 10k in March I had already registered for, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring back a medal from Mumbai for the month of February. I was going to be there for a creative workcation and knowing all the exciting things we already had planned for the weekend, I decided to sign up for an easy distance. And because it was a 5k, I also managed to convince my friend to sign up for her very first running race. The next thing I did was get an appointment with the team at Athlos (an Indian athleisure brand that you MUST check out if you haven’t already).
Wednesday-Thursday:
I was accompanied on my long bus journeys to and from Mumbai by Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog.
If it weren’t for the NRC app, I don’t know that I would have run as many races as I did in 2024, or that I would be the person looking for races in every new place I visit. If I weren’t so into running, I don’t know that I would be into athleisure enough to be visiting with creators of these products. Shoe Dog, which had been waiting on my bookshelf for a while, had to be read on the bus from Bangalore to Mumbai. Everything that I love about Coach Bennett - runners who are also lovers of words, a passion for life, and the belief that every finish line is just a starting line in disguise - came alive for me in a whole new way. As a reader first and athlete much later who’d so far only been listening to these ideas on runs, I found such pleasure in reading the story of the man who started it all.
Friday:
I reached the Athlos office. After a long and fruitful discussion with Pravin about how they developed the running shorts, other athletic wear they’re currently working on, and the Indian athleisure market as a whole, they offered me a pair of shorts to try out at the 5k that I’d be running a couple of days later.
On my way from the Athlos office to Juhu where I was to meet a friend, I had the pleasure of fantastic conversation with my Uber driver. We chatted about politics and politicians, the erosion of friendships in favor of followerships, the distance between god and religion, catfishing and other dangers of being online, and together we wondered how all of this pointed to living in the age of celebrity.
At one point, he said, “Aap batao, Sah Rukh Khan he ghar ke saamne photo leke DP bana dete hain, kya matlab? Agar Sah Rukh Khan ke saath photo lo to koi baat ho, ki kabhi mile toh the.” (“Tell me, what is the point of clicking a picture of oneself in front of SRK’s house and using it as a display picture? At least if you got a picture with SRK himself, it would mean that you actually met him and it’s worth remembering.”) “Aisa kehte hain, Sah Rukh Khan ne naam wale board mein diamond laga rakha hai, raat ko chamakta hai.” (“They say SRK has put diamonds in the name board of the house which shines at night.”) I asked if the diamond is real. The driver didn’t know, but he seemed sure that SRK can certainly afford to have real diamonds adorning the board with the name of his home at the gate. I told him that with all this information, I would now certainly have to get myself a picture with ‘Mannat’ just to make it my profile picture.
Saturday:
I had had a very eventful and quite exciting Friday, so of course I had barely slept. The only way to wake myself up that I could think of was to go for a quick, easy run.
After a slow Saturday morning, my friend and I dressed up in our saris and finally stepped out after lunch to collect our bibs. This was the first race where I found the bibs and t-shirts distributed in plastic covers. So far, for every race I’ve been to, the t-shirts and bibs are simply handed out, or given in cloth tote bags, but never in plastic covers.
That was just the start of another day full of excitement. It was close to midnight by the time we finally got to bed after getting home. Having woken up at 4:30 a.m. that morning, I have never been more grateful to myself for not signing up for a longer race. At least 5k is a distance I can run without thinking too much about it, even on a rough day.
Sunday:
Another 4:00 a.m. morning with barely any sleep.
It’s only 5k.
At least the weather’s not too bad.
For the race, I chose ‘Not Your Typical Long Run’ with Coach Frankie instead of a 5k guided run. I have done the run before, and I knew that I needed a guide that would remind me to change paces during the run. I was simply not in a state of mind where I could have focused on my own pace, and I was grateful to be able to run at a steady pace with regular pickups. It’s a really good choice for a guided long run for a race (when you are allowed to wear headphones) as a beginner and I will definitely do this again.
Being on the west coast, most of the run was done before sunrise which was great.
My greatest peeve however was the traffic management. I don’t know if this was true for all categories of the race, but there were large sections of the race where we were either running with traffic or against it with no traffic cones separating the running route from vehicular traffic. One part of the route involved crossing the road as traffic continued on both sides - yes, there was a coordinator, but it is not helpful at all to scream at runners to sprint across the road just because the route requires crossing an active road. One of the sections was dug up for construction work and between the construction material and traffic, it was not the best situation for runners - especially not for someone who isn’t used to it. These are all risk factors for pedestrians at all times - and so much worse for runners in the dark.
After the run, my friend and I checked out the available breakfast options - they had poha/upma as fresh meals, bananas, Epigamia yogurt cups with flavor options, and boxes of tempeh. It is certainly the most lavish post race spread I’ve ever seen.
Once we’d got our medals, my friend asked me what I’d like to do, and I told her that it was imperative I get a picture at Shah Rukh Khan’s house just so I can use it as a profile picture. (The race details had mentioned that the start and end point of the race was close to that location.) I assumed everyone in Mumbai just know where SRK lives, and I was just a tiny bit disappointed to find out that’s not true. I finally asked a passing auto driver for directions (they always know) and we made our way there.
I was pleasantly surprised to know that his house isn’t always surrounded by a horde of fans. There was only a couple of friends there to do exactly what we were there to do, and as they clicked each other’s pictures we shared smiles of acknowledgement of our common faith in that magic, of that tiny hope. Of course I made a wish there and of course it will come true.
We ended our morning with a delicious breakfast of shakshuka (which I had for the first time) and a paneer bhurji sandwich.
Tuesday:
New month, new city, new medal hanging from the shelf.
Where will these legs take me next?