Thousands pound Seaview road in ultimate show of endurance.

KARACHI -- The NBP Commissioner Karachi Marathon 4 brought out the entire city, or so it seemed, to Nishan-i-Pakistan on Abdul Sattar Edhi Avenue better known as Seaview Road here on Sunday morning.

It was not about who participated in the marathon? It was more like who didn't participate in it? Numerous categories pulled in numerous runners but quite frankly there were also some who ran despite having no category to their kind.

For instance, this race for human beings also had animals running. Haider Ilahi and Saad Farooq, two brothers running in the marathon, had come with their one-year-old pet German shepherd dog Saya, who they said followed them everywhere like their shadow. When asked what they would do if Saya grew tired, there was a unanimous shaking of heads. 'Saya doesn't ever get tired.'

There were parents with their children and the entire family was running. Sikander Ali was there with better half Noor Jehan and daughter Maiida Nehel. 'My father was running and he dragged along me and Ammi too,' laughed the daughter. 'I'm sure I'm not going to win anything but then we are here to have fun,' she added.

Nisar Ahmed, a watchman at the NED University, had brought with him his younger brother Jinsaar Ali and children Saira Batool, Hasan Nisar and Mohsin Nisar. All were running and had registered in their respective categories.

There were little kids, too, running in the Fun Category for children. They only had to run one kilometre, but then there were also some who opted for the 7.5 meters category.

There were participants in the differently-abled persons' category also. Some of them were in sports wheelchairs and others gesturing to each other in sign language. There were also members of the armed forces all in tip-top shape.

Speaking of tip-top shape there were several boxers and karatekas, too. Noushad Fateh, an international boxer, had brought with him several of his boxer students, including national champion Maaz Khan. 'Running is part of our daily routine so we thought why not run in the marathon too,' said Noushad.

Among the over-50 veterans' category were Lala Hikmatullah, who came third in last year's marathon. This year he was running 7.5km. There was also Dawn staffer Tahir Siddiqui, who had fever for the last three days, but was determined to run and was running 12km. 'I've been running 10km in all the previous three marathons and I don't want to break my momentum,' he said. Both Lala and Tahir won in their respective...