A city that frets so much over missing the 10.47 back to Virar since the next one chugs in only at an uptight 11.17 almost didn’t notice that a whole 2 minutes, 10 seconds were bravely knocked off — at its annual city marathon—to register India’s best effort. Mumbai hardly swelled with pride when Ram Singh Yadav bettered upon 2:20:33 on Sunday, riding on the city’s good weather. Neither will it mourn tonight alongside the runner from Varanasi whose 2:18:23 lung-bursting effort in front of CST, still fell short of an Olympic qualification mark, heart-breakingly denying him a Beijing berth. But then, Mumbai’s marathon is in the habit of drowning in the din of the Dream Run.

Yadav’s Indian face dashing towards the finish-line evoked a host of cheers from the crowd that had watched eight Kenyans and one Ethiopian sprint past before he did. But there was little knowledge of Yadav’s course-record-setting feat for an Indian, neither a hint of sorrow when the timer ticked past 2:18, and the moment to seal his trip to the big Games (achieved last in 1980) passed on unbothered.

By and large, Mumbai is yet to identify with its non-descript marathon runners’ sentimental connection with the clock, like we do with say — a 99 in cricket or an extra-time hockey equaliser. The whole of London was known to breathe in and exhale along with Paula Radcliffe when she ran. And that was on her way to becoming a champion.

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