16 January,2018 08:51 AM IST | Mumbai | Hemal Ashar
Jayanthi Sampathkumar
Putting a quirk in the 42-km marathon course, 44-year-old Jayanthi Sampathkumar from Hyderabad is going to attempt to run the full marathon (42 km) in Mumbai on January 21 dressed in a sari. "I will be wearing a six-yard ponchampalli cotton sari on the Tata Mumbai Marathon course. I am a regular marathon runner, but this will be my first Mumbai marathon," she said.
Cycle & credibility
On August 20 last year, Sampathkumar completed the Hyderabad marathon dressed in a sari in four hours 57 minutes and 44 seconds, entering the Guinness Book of World Records, which had set a time limit for the feat, of finishing the marathon in less than five hours. In Mumbai, Sampathkumar is now setting her sights on breaking her own record. She will have two people with her on the course - a pacer, who is "a friend from Mumbai", helping her achieve the sub five-hour target, and an assistant from Hyderabad, who will be cycling ahead of her, with a GoPro camera on the rear of the bicycle to record her attempt. This is because the Guinness Book officials need the footage and pictures for verification.
Vivek Singh, joint managing director, Procam International marathon organisers, said, "We have a couple of runners this time, pursuing different goals on the course. It is not Procam that is seeking out these runners to do something different while running. It is the runners who come to us and, if we find merit in their claim, we allow it. There is a runner who is attempting a world record solving the largest amount of Rubik cubes; there is Jayanthi who will be running in a sari with a cyclist recording her. These runners have chosen Mumbai because of the huge platform that it is, the spirit of celebration and community that the run fosters."
Diwakar Pingle from Powai will be setting the pace for Sampathkumar.
The pacer, who has paced and coached Sampathkumar earlier, said, "Unlike Hyderabad, which has a dry climate, Mumbai is humid. We are aiming for four hours 45 minutes (to complete the feat). I will be concentrating on getting Jayanthi through the sea link and Peddar Road incline in good time," finished the engineer and finance professional.
Saris
Sampathkumar, who is a principal engineering manager with Microsoft, said, "I have always loved saris. Last year, my new year resolution was to wear a sari to work every day. I have kept it up so far, except when I travel to the US for work. There were days when I had my doubts, especially when I had to give a presentation to a VP visiting from the US. But I decided that wearing a sari is who I am, and there's no need to change that." It was a piece that she happened to read about a man creating a world record for the fastest half marathon (21 km) run in a business suit that got her thinking about attempting the same in her favourite attire. "I researched Guinness world records online and was happy to find out that they had a category called 'fastest marathon dressed in a sari' for which no record had been created," she said. From then on, it became the Hyderabadi's mission to give that category a record.
Spectators and fellow runners would do well to watch out for a determined sari-clad Sampathkumar attempting to put the desi drape into the record books, and cheer her on, because after all, sari jaahan se achcha.
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