Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon: Route unveiled

At the Technical & Route Unvelling Meet & Greet conference at the SCMM Media Center, from L to R, P N Sankaran (Director Operation-Procam International), Hugh Jones (Race Director), Dr. Aashish Contractor, Medical Director, Krishna Prakash, IPS, Additional Commissioner South Region and Vivek B Singh (Jt. MD, Procam International)

Procam International, the organizers of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) are ensuring that various measures and facilities are being put in place to facilitate the smooth conduct of the 11th edition of the event and to give the participants a satisfying running experience.

Mr. Vivek Singh, Jt. MD Procam International, while addressing a media conference announced their preparedness to conduct the 11th edition of Asia’s premier Marathon at the SCMM Media Centre on Wednesday evening.

Race Director, Hugh Jones, said that the course is almost the same as last year, but following feedback received from the previous year a few small changes have been made. “From the experience of conducting more editions, we can make the course smoother for the runners. Small things add up to help improve the running experience of the participants. So this time we have altered the U-turns by utilizing the maximum width of the road. This will help the runners as there will be less jostle among the ones at the back,” Jones explained.

IPS, Additional Commissioner (South Region), Krishna Prakash sounded a note of caution about the safety aspect keeping in mind the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon. “After what happened at the Boston event, which was considered the safest marathon, the police force is extra cautious and wants any such incident. We will identify sensitive points along the route. There will be fool proof security arrangements in place as we can’t rule out anything. We will be frisking the runners, including the volunteers and will keep a close watch in crowded places to ensure that nothing goes wrong,” Prakash informed.

“We will take more anti-terror measures. There will be 22 anti-terror hit squad personnel on the route and at the start and finish points. The ATC will watch and identify any suspicious persons. They will be positioned on high rise buildings and along the route in plain clothes,” he further stated.

The medical arrangements for the event will be taken care of by Asian Heart Institute, who was represented by Medical Director of SCMM, Dr. Aashish Contractor, Head of the department of Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation at the Asian Heart Institute.

According to Dr. Aashish Contractor, the Medical Director of the Marathon, AHI has instituted the Runners Medical Profiler and Cardiac Risk Score, which is probably a first time initiative amongst all leading world class marathons.

The Runners Medical Profiler is an attempt to capture the medical profile of all the runners participating in the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, for both the Full Marathon and the Half Marathon categories, which will enable the runner to pre-intimate the Organizers and the Medical team of his/her medical history, medications and allergies.

The route map for the marathon

Also, this year some of the participants will be tracked by trans-telephonic ECG monitoring technology, which transfers the runners’ ECG directly to the doctor’s smart phone.

On the medical facilities available to the participants, Dr. Contractor revealed that there would be 12 Medical Station (including 2 Base Camps), eight ambulances and 350 doctors on duty.

Elaborating on the arrangements on Race Day, Vivek Singh, Jt. MD, Procam International announced that a total of 1 lakh, 35 thousand liters of water would be distributed on race day through 25 water stations, while there would be eight Energy Drink Stations, 11 Cool Sponge Stations and 11 Orange Stations (providing slivers of Oranges and salt) to help the full marathoners and half marathoners remain hydrated during their runs.

There will be two ‘Cool Zones’ that will be created along the route on the return leg for the full marathon, which will also benefit the half marathoners – outside Wilson College and near Parsee Gymkhana.

Ensuring that all participants enjoy a safe and secure run will be 1950 Law & Order and Traffic Police deployed on Race Day, besides 1000 private security personnel and 1000 volunteers.

The event will be telecast live on Star Sports 4, the Channel Partner from 7.00 am to 11.00 amwith a Simulcast on DD Sports, the Broadcast Partner.