Mumbai Marathon

Mumbai is a sea-level marathon with two bumps in it. The first begins at km 8.9, climbs past Kemps Corner and crests at 40.0 m at km 11.0, then drops 38 m in the next 1.8 km. The second begins at km 34.9, climbs Pedder Road and crests at 40.5 m at km 36.3.

They are not the same climb. The first is 34 m spread over 2.2 km, about 1.6% on average. The second is 34 m in 1.4 km, about 2.5%, and it comes at km 35. Together they make about 73 m of the course’s 104 m of climbing.

Between them, from km 12.8 to km 34.9, the ground never passes 13.2 m. The bridges of the Coastal Road and the Sea Link carry the road above that ground for part of the stretch.

The route in these notes is the organiser’s 2026 course.

Measured

Since 2026 the course turns at the Haji Ali junction onto the northbound ramp of the Coastal Road, the expressway that opened in 2024, and passes the shrine about 250 m away. Around km 17 it crosses the Coastal Road’s bowstring arch over the Worli fishing channel.

The Sea Link comes next, the cable-stayed bridge from Worli to Bandra that opened in 2009, 5.6 km long with pylons up to 128 m high. Runners cross it northbound, switch carriageway after the Bandra toll plaza and leave for Mahim, where the course turns at the Mother and Son statue and runs north past St Michael’s Church at km 23.1.

The way home is down Swatantrya Veer Savarkar Marg along the edge of Shivaji Park at km 24.8, past Siddhivinayak Temple towards Worli, and back onto the Coastal Road at about km 33 on the way to Pedder Road.

The places and kilometres are the organiser’s 2026 route.

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The start is on Dr Dadabhai Naoroji Road, opposite the railway terminus that opened in 1888 and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Flora Fountain is inside the first kilometre, and the course then runs the whole of Marine Drive, the 3 km curve of road along Back Bay that Mumbai calls the Queen’s Necklace for its streetlights, to the beach at Girgaon Chowpatty. It turns inland at Tambe Chowk at km 8.9 and climbs towards Kemps Corner.

The same stretch of sea front is the last thing the race shows you. Chowpatty comes round again at km 38.0, the course passes Wankhede Stadium, where India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup final, on Marine Drive at km 40.8, and the course turns in along Veer Nariman Road to the Mumbai Gymkhana, the club founded in 1875 whose ground staged India’s first home Test match.

It is a loop in the plain sense: the finish sits about 700 m from the start. The route is the organiser’s 2026 course.

Measured

For the race on Sunday 17 January 2027 the organiser says “a sequence of Start Waves will occur from 5 a.m. onwards, with short intervals between each start wave”. Waves A to E are set by the finish time on the timing certificate a runner applied with: A is a marathon of up to 4:00:00, E is 5:30:01 or slower. The organiser calls those wave times indicative.

The line is shut at 5:30 a.m. “Participants will not be permitted to start after this time”, and the page warns that long queues build at the venue gates, so the journey is worth planning around.

Timing results, rankings and certificates are generated “only for runners who complete the 42. 195 km distance within 7 hours from their start time”, counted from each runner’s own start rather than from the first gun.

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