Hyderabad: Hyderabad turned into a city of runners on Sunday, August 30, as the 15th edition of the NMDC Hyderabad Marathon took over the streets in one of India’s biggest and most challenging running spectacles.
What began as a modest gathering of 1,250 runners at its 2011 debut has grown into an event expecting over 30,000 participants this year, cementing its place as India’s second-largest city marathon.
Long before sunrise, People’s Plaza on Necklace Road was a sea of runners gathered for one of four races: the flagship 42.2 km full marathon, the 21.1 km half marathon and the 10K and 5K run. The full marathon runners were first off the line at 3:30 AM, chasing the early morning cool before the midday heat set in, while the half marathon and other categories followed a little later, as the plaza filling steadily through the morning.
The race lived up to its signature theme, a point-to-point course linking historic Hyderabad with the contemporary IT hub. Starting at People’s Plaza by Hussain Sagar Lake, it tested runners through Banjara Hills, across the Durgam Cheruvu Cable Bridge and past the Cyberabad skyline, before finishing inside GMC Balayogi Stadium in Gachibowli.
A photo finish in the men’s elite race
The men’s elite title came down to a margin most spectators would have missed. Kenya’s Felix Kimutai and Ethiopia’s Seboka Negusse crossed the line separated by a tenth of a second, Kimutai clocking 2:20:57.750 to Negusse’s 2:20:57.850, after 42 km of racing.
India’s Gopi Thonakal, the Asian Marathon champion and a two-time Olympian, took third in 2:21:29, finishing barely half a minute off the winner and giving the Gachibowli crowd its loudest cheer of the morning.
The women’s race was closer than the times alone suggest, with under a minute covering the podium. Ethiopia’s Emane Seifu won in 2:46:29, followed by compatriot Tsega Desta in 2:46:57. Kenya’s Teresiah completed the podium in 2:47:17.
Neither course record was under threat, with Francis Cheruiyot’s 2:17:27 and Millicent Jemutai Kibet’s 2:39:27, both set in 2025, still standing. The elite field this year numbered 45 runners, 10 international and 35 Indian, with prize money going deep: Rs 3,00,000 for the winner, Rs 2,50,000 for second and Rs 2,00,000 for third, followed by Rs 1,50,000, Rs 1,00,000 and Rs 75,000.
A course record would have carried an additional Rs 1,50,000, and an Indian national record Rs 5,00,000.
The rest of the field
Some had travelled far just to be part of it. Amit, who flew in from Mumbai, said the pull of the city itself was half the reason he signed up. “Running through the City of Pearls, past the lake, the bridges, it’s a different kind of high. I was genuinely excited the moment I landed,” he told Siasat.com.
“The aid stations were everywhere – water, electrolytes, all of it right when you needed them. It made the whole run so much easier to manage,” Ayub, an IT employee working in the Financial District who took on the half marathon, told Siasat.com.
With roads closed across the marathon route from 5 am to 11:30 am under a detailed advisory from Cyberabad Traffic Police, the city braced for the usual Sunday disruption. Diversions around key junctions like IKEA and the ORR were well managed and special Metro services ferried runners and spectators through the morning without much fuss.
For a city known for its traffic snarls, the marathon morning felt unusually smooth, with only occasional holdups on stretches like the ORR. Commuters did complain about the long detours, but there were no major signs of distress.
Between the packed plaza, the well-stocked aid stations and roads that held up better than expected, the 15th edition of the NMDC Hyderabad Marathon left runners, first-timers and veterans alike, humbled by the track.
| Edited by Osama Salman | | 
