Joyce Hodges-Hite, right, is shown with Maria Polyzon at the social following the Mumbai Marathon/Half Marathon. Maria is the Woman’s Marathon champion of Greece. (Photo contributed) Joyce and Jim Hite recently returned from Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, where Joyce ran in the Mumbai Half Marathon Jan. 17.

Thanks to Dr. Dave Martin, a leading expert in the world running scene and a yearly visitor to Jenkins County for the November Cross Country race put on by Millen Milers and More at Magnolia Springs State Park, Joyce was invited to run and the couple was treated as elite participants.

Race officials provided transportation to and from the airport, even with 1 a.m. arrival and departure, as well as all meals, which meant sharing the table with elite runners from Ethiopia, Kenya and Russia, among others. Joyce and Jim were two of only three U.S. citizens involved in the event, the other being Dan O’Brien, the 1996 Olympic Decathlon gold medalist, who was there as a business representative.

On the night of their arrival, the couple was guests of Vivek Singh, Managing Director of Procam International, a Sports Management company responsible for marathons around the world. Singh and his wife hosted Joyce and Jim, a representative from the Czech Republic, two representatives from Greece, and the Greek Woman’s marathon champion at an evening meal at the Taj Hotel.

The Taj, along with the Trident (formerly Hilton) Hotel where Jim and Joyce stayed, were the targets of Pakistani terrorists in November 2008, when both hotels were put under a 60-hour siege resulting in 166 deaths. Security at both hotels was extremely tight. Every vehicle was stopped and searched at the hotel entrance and each time a person entered the hotel he or she was put through a metal detection device, screened with a metal detector, and patted down.

The Half Marathon started 13 miles north of the finish and in part ran along the Arabian Sea before finishing in Azad Maidan Park in central Mumbai. Temperatures reached the mid-90s by the finish. Jim ran in a crowded, non-competitive six kilometer event with over 22,000 participants, which became a rather easy run after one kilometer.

A three day stopover in Amsterdam broke up the 25 hour return flight as the pair cooled off with temperatures in the 20s and became tourists, taking a canal tour and seeing the sights by riding the tram.