48+ Hours in Mumbai - Mumbai Marathon

One of the things that is far to easy to do in Dubai is "pop" over to countries over the weekend. Although I have talked about it and always talk of the awesome possibility, I really haven't done it.

The time has come. 

And it was waaaaaaaaaaaay too easy and I feel silly actually for not doing it for the last 5+ years. 

Of course it's easy when countries are close, i.e. India. It still makes me chuckle with the thought of someone asking, "so, what did you do this weekend?" Response, "well, I went to India for the weekend." Although to many people, that would lead to a "wow!" response, because Dubai people are so worldly, the response is more like "ah, that's nice!" But to me it is still exciting.

Anyhoo, yes, I literally popped over to India for just over 48 hours. Not only that, but I did sightseeing AND ran a marathon during that time, ha! I know normally I blab and blab about all my trainings and the ins and outs of it, buuuuut, maybe it's because these marathons are coming and going so often it's not such a big thing to me anymore (gasp! You know when you're a runner when marathons become so blase to talk about, haha) to go through such details. And also, my training this year was more or less similar to the years before with the ONLY exception that I did probably a bit more yoga AND darn it, wasn't as nazi about my diet and hence am a few kg heavier than usual (boooooo!) and hence expectations for a speedy marathon were zilch and just wanted to be steady and... have fun! 

There were about 15 or so runners from my group that did the Mumbai marathon, but of them, there were 3-4 closer friends, and 6-7 somewhat close friends. I was with my friend Liz the whole time, and we both flew in Friday evening and flew out Sunday evening, so really, wasn't kidding when I said in and out! We were the only ladies of the group, and the boyz were teasing us not only how particular we were with our food and how we brought our own (seriously), but also our habits of being so careful with activity or non-activity and again, our food stuffs. Friday we just did a little walk around the hotel area, then Saturday was a pow wow day of doing a little 'loosening' up run, then went off to the Expo, then did some sightseeing, then did a late lunch/early dinner, then.... marathon prep! Sunday was.... Mumbai Marathon! Will write a little about that in a bit, but after we finished, it was this looong walk back to hotel, shower, pack, go to celebratory lunch, relax a bit, then.. off to the airport! 

Sooo.... off we go, the quick journey!

Dubai to Mumbai, Liz in her anti-allergy/not-wanting-to-get-sick gear (haha):

Arrival in Mumbai:

Hotel Trident at Nariman Point: Our food prep (yes, we brought all that food with us from Dubai! Liz's stuff was a lot more organized than mine, mine also included porridge and other random stuff), typical Mumbai smog, and facilities of the hotel:

Cool to have elites stay at the hotel and to meet with them (he is from South Africa, we didn't get a chance to ask the others, or were a bit shy. He got 12th overall, I think!):

Street scene (food) around our hotel:

Saturday morning pre-marathon warm-up:

Drive to Expo and Marathon Expo:

Sightseeing - Gateway of India, Taj Hotel, natural coconut hydration (good electrolytes!)

Late lunch/early dinner at the famous and well known Cafe Mondegar next to Leopold's, but unfortunate locations of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks: 

Mumbai MARATHON DAY (January 15th):

Post-run:

So there you have it! The weekend in a nutshell!!

Now, for me more than anything else, the actual marathon itself! As mentioned, going into it as I trained well, I am heavier than usual and felt fairly confident I could do sub 4 hours, but realistically was thinking I could do between 3:45-3:50. Well, I got a 3:48!!! Haha. The experience was great! So nice to do a different marathon and this was soo soo well organized. The 1st 3rd of the course was a bit humid, as I had been warned. I don't sweat that much, and felt like I was already sweating after the 1st km or two. Felt fairly comfortable and REALLY had to monitor my watch to slow down and not go out too fast. The 1st 3rd of the run was quite nice, it was misty, dark, okay a bit humid, but nice and scenic with a beautiful bridge to cross over, the Bandra - Worli Sealink bridge or Rajiv Gandhi bridge. It was quite surreal as it was quiet except for the pitter patter of runners, the cables of the bridge almost looked psychedelic, and with the mist and all, was very beautiful and I remember taking a deep breath and felt pure enjoyment and just loved the experienced.

But THEN, after this calming and beautiful bridge, we got out of it, and then poof! The 2nd 3rd of the run - POLLUTION! I don't think I've experienced brown air, but really, it was brown air and you could feet and taste the pollution. Ewe. I guess this was more the 'slummy' parts of Mumbai. Maybe a bit earlier, but this young chatty lad befriended me and he wanted to keep chatting while running, which I admit was a good distraction, although got a bit annoying because he was insisting I keep him motivated and keep chatting, hard to do when you have 42km to push through! Anyhoo, he pooped out and I just stayed focused and tried to be consistent. Again, the police were EVERYWHERE and were supportive along with the people and have to say, 2 thumbs up to the organization again, there really was water or some kind of goodies every km or so. Plus, my gawd, Mumbai is one of the most densest and busiest cities in India and to organize street closures and to make the marathon happen, I can only imagine what had to be done, but everything was closed off and catered towards us, which was great!

The 3rd leg of the marathon, well, in any race this is when the going gets tough. As we circled back into the "nice and clean" neighborhoods of Mumbai, the air got less polluted, but it got quite hot. Legs were feeling heavier and heavier, and with a nice big o bridge at 34km, phew! Quite tough to power through. I could feel myself slowing down, but just didn't have it in me to go harder or faster. Just kept myself to maintain, maintain, maintain and/or steady, steady, steady, and just was counting down the km in my head. I do admit I do like km for that reason as they come rather quickly. I have to admit it got a wee bit annoying at the end because we merged with the back of the pack marathon runners and these walkers did get in the way a bit and the water help just kept on going more and more in the roads, but alas.... made it to the finish!!! Hurrah! Didn't look at my watch the last 5-7km because I knew I was going slower and slower and didn't want to think negative at that, so just let it go and have to say did as I expected and was pleased at 3:48. Yay!!

Overall, I REALLY liked doing a 'different' marathon and it was sooo nice that it was so convenient to do it in India! Also, it was super cute as Team India, as I like to call them, were super kind and REALLY took care of the only (expat) ladies, Liz and I, and treated us like little sisters, really ensuring we were safe and taken care of. Super kind these boyz!

A super experience for Marathon #9!!!!