Mumbai, Jan 15 (IANS) Over 39,000 people early Sunday kicked off the ninth edition of Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2012 from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in south Mumbai.

Star participants like model-actor Milind Soman who runs the full marathon every year and business tycoon Anil Ambani who participates in the half marathon this year were seen in full energy as they started off at the coveted run.

"It gives me a great pleasure to participate in the Mumbai marathon every year," Soman said before he began his run.

Also participating in the run this time is Siddharth Mallya, socialite and son of businessman Vijay Mallya.

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link proved to be a major attraction for most runners.

Bollywood actor John Abraham and former tennis player Vijay Amritraj were also present as the two event ambassadors of the marathon.

There is a total purse of $340,000 - with an overall increase of $15,000 for the different categories of winners, including prizes for the top three winners, as compared to 2011.

The marathon, which started from CST, has taken the route to Bandra via the Rajiv Gandhi Bandra-Worli Sea Link, and will take a different route to return to CST.