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January - February 2010 22 Mumbai runs... across the Arabian Sea By Priyanka Borpujari FOCUS N NT I E EV The year was 2004. At 3 am on a Sunday in January, the concluded seventh edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai foggy Mumbai roads were lit by street lights. Several men Marathon (SCMM). were busy fixing flex banners, while some others were giving instructions on walkie-talkies. At a podium near The marathon race, which gets Mumbaikars onto the streets the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) stood Dilip Jayaram, – either through their participation or by way of their cheering who was at that time with ESPN Star Sports. “It suddenly for the participants – is a huge logistical exercise. Nevertheless, struck me that India was having its first ever marathon race. Procam International, the promoter of the race, along with In that midnight silence of the city and the cacophony of title sponsor Standard Chartered, have managed to deliver the volunteers working on the last minute details of the successful runs year after year, since 2004. It comes as no marathon, I heard the city and the country screaming, ‘We surprise that the number of participants this year was 38,520 want road races’,” reminisces Jayaram, today the COO of across all the five race categories, with athletes from 32 Procam International, as he sits back after the recently- nationalities too running across the Arabian Sea. Seven years on, and still new! Label races today,” said Jayaram. Although this was the seventh edition of the marathon, there were several firsts attached to it – the prize money has been Now let’s go back to a few centuries to understand why the Mara- enhanced to $ 310,000, which is $ 60,000 more than the last thon Flame is so significant. As is known, the modern Athens Mara- edition’s $ 250,000; SCMM is now a Gold Label marathon race; thon commemorates the run of the soldier Pheidippides from a the Marathon Flame was brought to Mumbai from Athens; the battlefield at the site of the town of Marathon, Greece, to Athens in half and full marathoners ran through the Bandra-Worli Sealink; 490 BC. The run was introduced in the Olympics Games in Athens and the race timings were recorded compulsorily for the half and in 1896, and a flame was lit that year. full marathoners. The flame now travels to two marathons in a year. “So far, outside In October 2009, the International Association of Athletics Feder- ation (IAAF) conferred a ‘Gold Label’ to SCMM, as well as all the forthcoming road races within the country to be organised by Procam International. This includes the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon and the Sunfeast World 10K Bangalore to be held in 2010. The Gold Labels are conferred upon meeting certain criteria such as high participation of world-class male and female athletes; strict course measurement and racing standards; national television coverage along with global TV distribution; high standards of or- ganisation for participants, media, etc.; and strict anti-doping pro- cedures. “It is prestigious as there are only 12 marathons across the world which have received the Gold Label, out of the 240 plus marathons across the world. India does not have a running culture as such, and hence it is great that we have three Gold EventinFocus_EF_Jan10.indd 14 2/4/2010 9:00:08 PM 23 January - February 2010 Mumbai runs... across the Arabian Sea which indicated which runner was at which location, at any given point in time. At the end of the race, the runner received a timing certificate which certified his/her best timing during the race. So in terms of data points, with start and finish, two split points for the half marathoners and four split points for the full marathoners – more than 62,000 points of data were recorded by Timing Tech- FOCUS nologies India. N Explaining the reason for making the timers a must, Jayaram said, “We always had timers for races but people had the option of using them. Only regular runners who are competing with them- selves would use these timers earlier. But this time we made it NT I compulsory because we have seen that the number of half mara- E thoners has increased exponentially,” In 2004, there were about 1,000 half marathoners. This year, the EV organisers had to stop registration at 11,000. So for a serious runner, maintenance of such data helps such that benchmarks can be set. Over a period of time, Procam intends to have a cut-off time for both the races. Logistics and more... Organising an event of a magnitude as large as SCMM has its own challenges. “In the seven years of the marathon, it seems like we have become specialists for managing crowds. We have 2,200 vol- unteers, 44 tons of equipment, 140,000 liters of water, 300 medical personnel, 11 ambulances – everything that has to be done is huge. Even when we buy fruits, it is all about 40,000 oranges or 35,000 apples. But I think we have managed to tackle the main challenge – we are attuned to what participants are looking for. Today, we are also able to learn from other road races and bring the best practices here,” Jayaram elaborated. of Europe, the flame has travelled only to Berlin, which hosts the world’s largest marathon. But this is the first time that it travelling out- “We plan for the marathon through the year. Immediately after the side and coming to Asia. It is actually an honour for a marathon to marathon, we have review meetings for each of the 10 verticals, be awarded this flame. That is what the Standard Chartered Mum- each of which are extremely detailed. We then analyse the things bai Marathon has achieved. The marathons may apply for the flame that we should continue doing, those that should be changed, and to the Hellenic Athletic Federation, but ultimately, the flame chooses those which can be good e specially for a participant. The most the marathon based on various parameters,” explained Jayaram. paramount aspect for us is the runner. Anything that we can do to Venice is the other city where the flame will travel this year. be able to improve his race is our priority, he added.” Greek athlete Maria Polyzou, who is the first women athlete to take Of all the races, the dream run is the one which attracts maximum part in the Olympics in Greece, and the sole carrier of the flame, participation. This year, there were 18,000 people doing the dream lit the flame in Mumbai on January 10, 2010. The flame was kept lit run, and needless to mention, it is one of the most significant races, near Flora Fountain till the culmination of the marathon. from the point of view of crowd management. “The dream run is the fun element that actually brings people in to the event, and This year, the track for the full and half marathon runs was literally in there are scores of people cheering the runners. It is our imperative the middle of the sea. The half marathon began in Bandra, and then to design a plan for managing the ones cheering. It is a given that terminated at CST. The full marathoners started their run at CST, around 5,00,000 people line up the streets to cheer the runners. So ran through the Sealink, and then completed their run at CST. In all, other than having barricades, we receive from the police, both law 14,000 runners ran through the Sealink. and order, and traffic, to be able to manage the entire process of the road race,” he said. Another added feature this year was that the half and full maratho- ners were timed with the help of a timer chip attached to their shoe. Running partners There were mats on the course of the run which fired back data, When it comes to the partners, all of them are blue-chip compa- nies which have invested into the phenomena of road races in the country. Almost all the brands which today have been so since the inception of the race. They have been working with us to be able Approx. Figures of participants: Wheelchair – 200 people Dream run – 18,000+ Senior citizen – 2,000+ Half marathon – 11,000 Full marathon – 3,000 EventinFocus_EF_Jan10.indd 15 2/5/2010 12:43:49 PM 25 January - February 2010 to sample and are not competing with one of our partners. We make about 40,000 goody bag, which we also give to some key stakeholders, which includes the huge volunteer base, that consists of college students. Some of them have been so involved in the races that within them we have sub-heads. We have a total of 1,600 college students as volunteers. FOCUS Besides, Procam gives out more than 5,000 bibs to charity, and N another 5,000 to corporates, which reroutes itself back to charity. That is almost 30 per cent of the total running space taken. Around Rs 34 crore was raised this year in charity, through the 140 NGOs registered with United Way, which managed this significant aspect NT I of the race. E EV inception of the race. They have been working with us to be able to make this phenomena come true. At the same time, we give a goody bag to all our participants which includes goods by non-competing brands. This helps them sample a huge consumer base of the upwardly mobile strata.