Tag: Thane

Thane Mayor Marathon 2009 on Aug 2nd

This is the second in the tale of the two marathons in Thane, the other being the recently organized Thane ‘Varsha’ marathon, and like that event, this one is also going to be the 20th edition of this race. The total prize money for the event is published as Rs 5 lakhs (though I believe the actual figure is more, probably 15 lakhs), which probably makes the Varsha marathon the more popular event. Here is the beginning of my post.

I doubt whether the event has a website, and yet to hear about the registration details or the route. The starting point of the race is supposedly the Mahapalika Bhawan Chowk. The organizers expect a participation of more that 45,000 runners. Reading from an article on the last year’s event, I realized that it was really a Half Marathon, so I guess the title of the event is a bit misleading, though not surprising as 5K and 10K events in India are still labelled as ‘marathons’.

Here’s an article from the TOI on the event. To read an interesting review of the last year’s event, head to Mihir’s blog. Oh, and from his post, I realize that politics has resulted in the original Thane marathon being broken into two (the Varsha, and Mayor marathons), and both parties are promoting this year’s event as the 20th. Funny, this politics!

Related: Check India Marathon Calendar 2009.

Updates: Thane/Chandigarh/Pune marathons 2009-2010

Updates on upcoming marathon events at Thane, Chandigarh and Pune, which are not still at the level of the hotshots like the Mumbai marathon or the Delhi Half Marathon, but some of them have been around for ages, so just a heads up.

Jul 12 – Thane Varsha Marathon (check TOI article for details)

Dec 6 – Pune International Marathon (check Pune marathon website for details)

Feb 2010 – Chandigarh Marathon (check Sify news for details)

The Thane Varsha marathon is one of the oldest marathons in India and this will be the 20th edition of the run (Rs 2.5 lakh prize money). Why Varsha? Because it always happens when in pours in the monsoon months!

The Chandigarh marathon will be a first time event, and looks promising with the way the organizers are intending to promote this, and the associated prize money of Rs 10 Lakh, smaller than what the biggest marathons in India offer, but bigger than what most small city marathons offer. I am quite excited to see how this one goes, it is close by for me from Delhi, and very doable.

Pune marathon is more known for its idiosyncrasies, like having cutoffs of 1 hr 30 mins at 21K mark for the marathon, which I must say very few apart from the elite Indian athletes can hope to achieve. Also, runners at last years event went off the route along with the lead vehicle and were disqualified. They have a prize money budget of about 15 lakhs and attracts a lot of international athletes for the moolah.

Of course, the Indian running season has a lot more to look forward to, we are just entering the golden months now. Check out the entire season calendar at:

India Running Calendar 2009