You have to make the best of a business trip. With an 1100 flight from Dehli to Dubai there was time to fit in the Vatika Half Marathon in Delhi that started at 0530.
Flying into Dehli the day before, things did not bode well. There was a sand storm, it was 41c, and I had been to the loo 12 times after a fantastic(!?) Goan curry the night before.
Room service at 0400 and 6 immodiam overnight gave me a banana based breakfast and a cab to the start, insisted on by the hotel due to drunken lorry drivers between the hotel and the race village.
A bunch of stringy Kenyans and rakishly slim ‘Africans’ hugged start line with many shapes and sizes of Indian and Eastern skins behind. I felt quite old.
The route was basically around a massive building site with blocked roads. The Kenyans almost immediately went the wrong way adding 1.1km to the route. At first it wasn’t too hot, a mild 28c and I cruised at sub 5min/1km for the first 6km. The the sun came up. Phew-wee. 1hr 55mins later I finished, struggling to keep a pace under 6min/km, as it was now 38c. The winning time 1:06!
My 1/2m time I clocked at 1:49:45. I was first Carnethy, first European, first Brit and top 3 V50, maybe first, but hard to tell. I had to dash back to my hotel for quick loo visit, shower and cab to the airport. Thank god for the business lounge massage service.
Mark Hartree