Indian marathoners' pick: Scenic marathon trails around the world

CITYSCAPES
Most city runs outside India are beautiful, according to Srini Swaminathan, who has been running since 2010 and checks out marathon options the minute he knows he has to travel for work and may have a weekend to spare. “Most city runs are on flat courses, with organisers throwing in some forest trails and parks for diversity,” notes Srini. Registration costs are rather high (sometimes twice as much or more than marathons in Mumbai) and spot registrations cost between 30-40 % more; so travelling just for a marathon can be expensive. It’s better to club your marathon with your vacation or work trips.

Helsingborg, Sweden

Image by Lisa Wikstrand

Srini’s run in Helsingborg helped him fulfill Christmas wish-lists for 20 low-income community classrooms across two cities by setting up a fund-raising page with Milaap.org. He considers the run ‘value for money’. Starting in the city by the beach, the route takes you through a park, past docks, up a hill range and down to the beach again. The cleverly planned marathon features a changing landscape every 5-6 km. The route, which runs through a circus auditorium, always has something interesting to offer.      

Reykjavik, Iceland

Image by Andri Thorstensen

This greenery-loaded capital of Iceland makes for a super-cold run, which also includes pouring rain. Srini says, “The route goes through the best parts of the city”. Steam and gases rising into the air from borewells drilled all over the city, are a common sight; as are natural geo-thermal pools. People coat themselves with white-sand clay from the floors of the pools. You can see all this from a bus, but it’s a completely different experience to see it while you run. Post the marathon, runners can enjoy the hot springs too.  

Greenland and Copenhagen, Denmark

Reindeer skulls and boneson the roofs of Greenlanders’ houses. Image by Srini Swaminathan

Ice dominates the landscape, when you’re running through Greenland. You’ll be sprinting alongside glaciers for at least 10 km. As you go between mountains of snow, you catch glimpses of fishing boats stuck in it, waiting for the ice to melt. Of course, even as you dash past Inuit going about their daily chores, children heading to school in little fishing villages and small neighbourhoods, where locals proudly showcase reindeer and seal bones, the threat of polar bears is very real.  “Running is a great way to see and experience life in the city,” says Srini, who also ran a marathon in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen with its many historical tourist attractions. The run ensures you’ll see just about everything that a tourist would from a hop-on, hop-off bus.  

Singapore

Running by Singapore's iconic conservatories at Gardens by the Bay. Picture by Getty Images

Girish Mallya, who has been running for around 25 years now, tells us that the Singapore Marathon, which kick-starts at 5 am is possibly Asia’s best-organised city marathon. And while the early start can be attributed to the year-round humidity, hydration stations are well manned, so you won’t be left thirsting.  Often flanked by a sporting audience that cheers the runners, the route, which loops around the city’s best locales including the central business district and parks, is well planned and closed to traffic for the duration of the run.  On the flip side, registration costs about four times as much as marathons in Mumbai; besides the travel and accomodation expenses.

Istanbul, Turkey

Getty Images

Hariharan Ramalingam, who started running when he was 59-years-young in 2007, did the Istanbul marathon the day after his 65th birthday. Held in November, “the 42-km marathon starts 300 meters before the Bosphorous Bridge in the country’s Asian side and finishes in front of the Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet on the European side. The route goes past the 19th century Dolmabahçe Palace, the beautiful Fener Rum Ortodoks Patrikhanesi Church, Eyüp Sultan Camii mosque, Marmara sea and Gülhane Park. As you sprint past the finishing line, you hear your name being announced as a runner from India,” shares Hariharan.

COASTAL BEAUTY

Big Sur, Northern California

Big Sur International Marathon. Image by Marianne Mangold

“By default for every rupee I win, I spend 100 from my own pocket,” says 62-year-old Bhasker Desai, who will have run 15 marathons in 15 months by February 2015. Six days after doing the Boston Marathon, he ran from Boston to Big Sur (a lot of the trail is uphill) along the Californian coast. “Despite 26,000 comrades, running a coastal road can get lonely with no residents to cheer you on. Funny placards en route keep you going, and every 2 km a band plays different kinds of music. Since it’s in April, you’ll find cut strawberries at several locations all set for you to grab. “The best part about running is the camaraderie,” says the sexagenarian.

Lausanne, Switzerland

Image by Jean-Bernard Sieber

Running along grapevines on one side and a lake on the other can be refreshing, Bhasker discovered during the Lausanne Marathon. “There are no words to capture how beautiful it is,” he exults about the city, about 30 min by train from Geneva, which interestingly also has a marathon museum. Starting with the pre-marathon pasta party in the ship Lausanne, docked on the lake, to having an entire town cheer you on, this may be a marathon worth doing again.

Dream Runs: THE BUCKET LIST

Chicago
Running in downtown Chicago would offer several delightful sights—the Chicago river, the Michigan lake, the high rises... “If I travel there again, I would definitely time it with the marathon and see the city whilst running,” says Ajay Reddy.

Japan, Australia and New Zealand
Bhasker Desai, who is on the lookout for smaller races in more scenic locales intends to run Japan's Ecorace in April 2015. Australia and New Zealand are the other places on this sexagenarian's to-run list.  

Bordeaux
The Wine Trail Marathon, which Girish Mallya intends to do next September offers pure pleasure en route, with wine stops along the way.   

New York, Boston, Pan-India, South Africa
Srini Swaminathan hopes to run the New York and Boston marathons, all the full marathons in India and the Comrades Ultra Marathon in South Africa.

Brazil, Antarctica
Having completed 5 ultra (50 km) marathons, 19 full (42 km) marathons and 49 half (21 km) marathons, Hariharan aspires to run the full marathon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in July 2015. "I also plan to run the Antarctica Marathon in March 2015. This will give me the satisfaction of having run marathons in all the seven continents," he says.

To read about the most scenic marathons in India go to: dnai.in/cwnF