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Running marathons: How to choose the race that is right for you
Summary
Thousands of running enthusiasts across the country are preparing races during the winter marathon season. Here's a checklist of things you should know before signing up
Winter weekends are fairly busy and active for Rishika Gupta, a 39-year-old architect from Kolkata. And it is not work, family or social engagements that hog her calendar. It is the running season, and she loves signing up for as many 10km races as she can manage, depending on her fitness levels.
Road races and running events have exploded in India in recent times and each year we have countless races ranging from short sprints to ultramarathons of over 100 km. While it is great to have so many road race options spread all over the country, it becomes very important to know which race is right for you.
Back in 2016, I ran a 35km race in Mashobra near Shimla which actually came to only 30km. Earlier this month, several runners in Kolkata pointed out that a local race organised by a city club had participants running just 13km for a 15km race. Another runner spoke about a “dummy" race in south India where someone disappeared with lakhs of rupees collected through online runner registration, and the event never materialised.
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With every passing year, as the number of races grows, so does the number of scams, sub-standard events and poorly measured courses. This is because not all races have their race routes and distances verified and certified by an independent sports body such as Indian Athletics, the apex body for running and managing athletics in India.
“There is no proper legal framework or guidelines for conducting races and running events in India and that’s why some runners end up with bad experiences sometimes," says Raj Vetcha, co-founder of Hyderabad Runners and race director for the NDMC Hyderabad Marathon. He adds that there is a need to create more awareness among runners and fitness enthusiasts, especially the new converts.
Gupta, relatively new to the running world, has a simple criterion for choosing her races. “Whichever race has the best attendance in my city, in my case the Tata Steel World 25K Kolkata, is the one that I would immediately sign up for. It is no fun running all by yourself. I love the collective energy that one feeds off when running with thousands of other people. Next, I would look at the weather, then check how well the particular race is managed and organised and finally the history of the event. But the first things I look for are attendance, proximity and weather." Gupta has already run two local 10K races this year and will run another one at the Tata Steel World 25K Kolkata on 15 December.
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While experienced runners look at a few more things before signing up for a run, the majority are not even half as discerning as Gupta. It’s runners such as these, which make up the largest segment in India, that Vetcha is concerned about.
“Since there are no guidelines, a lot of organisers never pay attention to things such as fire safety, health and a lot of other things," he says.
As a result, Vetcha feels that it is important for runners to check if the event they are signing up for has been certified by independent sports bodies such as AIMS (Association of International Marathons and Distance Races) and World Athletics. An AIMS certification would mean that the course is properly measured and has been verified by their technical experts, explains Abhishek Mishra, a Gurugram-based endurance athlete and race director of the Indian Army’s Runveer 6.0 Infantry Marathon in Indore.
“An independent expert measures the race course using a motor and writes a report, which race organisers submit to AIMS via Indian Athletics. After studying the report, AIMS issues a certification for the course and all this takes about two weeks in total," explains Mishra.
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Beyond this, World Athletics provides a second certification that guarantees the quality of facilities, medical arrangements, standard of international athletes competing and the race timings. “The certification comes with an extra fee to be paid to the World Athletics. So, most races in India only get the AIMS certification," adds Mishra. Based on multiple parameters, World Athletics certifies races as basic label, gold label, elite label and platinum label.
Vetcha says all runners need to be made aware of these key certifications so that they make an informed decision when signing up for a race. “Out of the 1,000-plus races in India only 650-680 are timed races with an AIMS certified course. Of these, only a handful get World Athletics certification. The NMDC Hyderabad Marathon and Wipro Bangalore Marathon are World Athletics basic label races while the Tata Mumbai Marathon, TCS World 10K Bengaluru, Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon and Tata Steel World 25K Kolkata—all Procam International events—are gold label races," says Vetcha, he emphasises that these independent certifications for running events are important to maintain quality and furthering the sport.
However, Vivek Singh, joint managing director of Procam International, insists that each and every race in India serves a need. “All races are good in their own way. Many people run for fun and various other reasons. While an AIMS and World Athletics certification is important for the serious runners, the rest don’t care what distance they have run or the standard of competition," he says.
However, if you are a serious runner you must pick a certified race as it guarantees better hygiene, a certain standard of services, better experience, vibe, energy, timing criteria, and, above all, bragging rights for having completed a world-class race.
Shrenik Avlani is a writer and editor and the co-author of The Shivfit Way, a book on functional fitness.
