She’d give fellow 54-year-olds a run for their money: she pocketed $ 500 the first time she ran in Mumbai in 2004 having completed the whole 26-mile course — including the Hill twice over — also returning 30th within the prize-bracket. “Call only the 42 km the marathon,” she reiterates.

For the record, of the 33,000 entered, the full marathon is capped at 1,350, a mere 0.24 per cent.

The technicalities out of the way, Honnati, a Gurgaon resident who has completed six full-marathons over the last two decades — two in Japan and Macau— maintains that Mumbai is the most enjoyable course. “Small children offering water screaming Aunty paani, paani at Peddar Road is what makes it all worthwhile,” she says.

A private sector bank employee who resigned from her job to train for the 21-km run this year, Honnati had never strapped on the running shoes till she was 37. Studious — a distinction holder to boot — through school and college, she turned fitness-conscious in 1991 when she started jogging in Goa , and thereafter ran 5 km at the Pune International.

“My first 42 km was in Japan at 40, and the timing 3:27:00 was good,” she recollects, listing Allahabad (twice) and New Delhi as her other adventures. “In Japan there were 400 ladies in my age group,” she says of the country famed for its longevity and centurians. “It’s good that many are moving from the Dream Run into 21 km, but the 42-km marathon test is yet to catch up,” she says.

“Age is no bar. But good preparation is a must,” she says, planning the 21-km in Mumbai as preparation to an international race she hopes to complete in Europe in April-May.