A tight field of ten met inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali — the backyard format doesn’t care how many start, only who is left. Manoj Sundaram outlasted them all with 21 yards.
The runner who pushed him there: Ankit Sharma, Pune’s own champion from a few months earlier, now the assist at 20. A winner in one city, the last to fall in the next — proof that in a backyard, the clock resets for everyone and the loop owes you nothing for last season.
Ten started, one finished, one earned the assist, and eight went home with a DNF — the honest currency of this race. Nothing is lost; all is learnt.