Runners meet to get tips for marathon in Jan

Reflecting the growing mania for fitness among Mumbaiites, around 500 runners attended a workshop held on Saturday to get tips on running the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon next year.

Reflecting the growing mania for fitness among Mumbaiites, around 500 runners attended a workshop held on Saturday to get tips on running the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon next year.

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The marathon will be held on January 15, 2012. The workshop, Runners Meet, was held at Asian Heart Institute. The participants enrolled on a first-come-first-serve basis. This was the first time such a workshop was arranged by the organisers. They will have two more follow-up sessions before the marathon.

Amit Sheth, a self-confessed couch potato-turned-marathon enthusiast spoke about his experience. "My decision to run my first marathon was based on complete ignorance," he said. After a series of false starts with training and injuries, Sheth completed his first full marathon in 2006. Since then, he has run marathons all over the world.

Dr Aashish Contractor, head of preventive cardiology and rehabilitation at the hospital, spoke of the various training modules that runners could undertake. "If you experience unusual symptoms like light-headedness while running, I would advise you to slow down," said Contractor.

Savio D'Souza, a sports coach spoke about practical aspects of running often overlooked by first-time runners.