So much for my New Year resolution of trying to run every day.
It lasted pretty much for the first week of the year, then all the traveling hither and thither seriously messed things up.
What I did manage to do, however, despite 2 weddings and way, way too much partying, was to run every day in Bombay, and what a joy it was. I love Mumbai, always have done, but when we lived there my running was confined to jogging along the streets where we lived, mainly along Carmichael Road and Altamount Road.
How unadventurous I was back then.
How boring and stuck in a rut.
This time, determined to enjoy this fabulous city to the full, I ran every day along Marine Drive, and what a joy that was.
And, for what it’s worth from a newbie enthusiastic runner, the 10 +/- kilometre run from one length of Marine Drive to the other has to be one of the world’s best. To run in a hectically busy city with the sea on one side of you, and life with a capital L going on all around, is bliss.
And since Marine Drive was the first time I managed 10 kilometres, I know I will always remember that moment as I ran past Chowpatty on the way back, with an idiotic grin on my face.
My first 10 km 🙂 🙂
Marine Drive is a little over 4 km one way – about 4.3km if memory serves me right – but I ran from Ridge Road and back.
I ran early in the morning and also in the evening, and Marine Drive always felt safe. It is clean, well lit, obviously and visibly policed, and there are simply so many people around that I never felt uneasy for a nano-second. And unlike Delhi, where I live, no-one batted an eyelid. No-one stared. No-one gawped. I was just one of many other people doing their own thing on this iconic promenade.
Huge fun.
Here are a few moments, starting with one of my favourite signs in Bombay, at Walkeshwar:
Past the pigeon feeding station
On past Chowpatty beach, where you can buy all manner of fabulously coloured drinks
Past “my” house…one day…
You can buy all manner of things along Marine Drive…
There are memorials, including this one to the victims of the terror attacks of 2008
Whoever knew? (below)
A festive looking bus outside the Oberoi
Saw this bloke (below) one morning. Wearing a red and yellow towel and a straw skullcap, he kicked a half deflated football along most of Marine drive, and then when we both arrived at the tetrapods at the end, he struck this pose. What a rockstar!
And you meet such fascinating people.
Out running one gorgeous morning I met the charming young Samar Farooqui, whose business card reads “Slackline Professional”.
I give you slacklining.
It’s a long-ish clip, but this is a masterclass in slacklining, done just for lil ol’ me with my iphone, from a charming young man :
Yup.
No 2 ways about it – a great place to run.
And here’s the tracklog of my first ever 10k…slow because I stopped to photograph and video and talk to people…
