Our Park JP Park Run on Sunday May 4th

Run in a clean park! Make a clean park happen!

Cleanliness and Greenery for everyone!

RunWalkIndia web-site is up and running

I worked on setting up the RunWalkIndia web-site over the past week-end and am very proud of what I came up with. Do let me know of enhancements to make it better and friendly. I will be adding more content to the web-site over the next few days - the main items on my to do list being:

• On-line Registration Form (with no user login for now) to be used for quick completion of the registration process
• A Calendar of upcoming events.
• Results from the previous runs.
  

GoDaddy.com makes it easy to set up a decent web-site in quick time. The Website Tonight software is very powerful and flexible. I was also impressed with the friendly, prompt and knowledgeable 24/7 service they offer; every time I called up, it was service with a personal touch!

Digital memories of the second event

The all knowing and ubiquitous THEY said that no one in their sane mind in India will pay to run a short distance running event. We ignored THEM and proved THEM wrong by organizing one very successful event - Come Run The 5K event - on 20th April 2008 in JP Park Bangalore.

THEY were chastened and down, but not out. THEY fired back :

OK, you got it right by fluke once. No way it is going to happen again in this park and in this city in the next six months.

We let THEM go about THEIR expert opinions and focused on organizing the second event one week later.

One Week. Not One Year. Not One Quarter. Not One Month. One Week.

I invite everyone including THEM to see for themselves through these digital images how the second event - Prakash Farewell 5K - went. Wonderful job by our official event photographer Nandish Basavaraju to provide exceptional coverage of the event.

Now I am throwing down the gauntlet at THEIR feet by declaring that starting Sunday May 4th, there will be one RunWalkIndia event at JP Park every weekend - come rain or shine. I would suggest that THEY see our team song before THEY talk about the success or failure of our enterprise.

Oh Mitwa.. sun mitwa.. tujkho kya dar hai re... dharthi apni hai.. apna ambar hai rai..

You are right

Not sure if everyone in the team is reading Seth Godin's blog regularly as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts. Here is a very insightful and relevant post about how to deal with customers' complaints. Thought it would be useful in an effort to make RunWalkIndia a customer focused and friendly company.

RunWalkIndia has around 250 customers now, and yes they are paying customers. They deserve immense satisfaction from their interaction with anyone associated with RunWalkIndia.

Our target to have the entire 1.3 billion people in India as customers can succeed only if we treat our existing customers - however small in number and however insignificant their contribution to our coffers is - with the highest level of service orientation and make them customers for life!

Successful Second Event - Grand Farewell RUN

The Second Event under the Banner of RUNWALKINDIA is yet another achievement, which attracted much more runners and more number of finishers who came in to participate.

The Event started pleasantly at almost the scheduled time which had runners taking up their places as per their expected finish timings in three catergories at about 1-2 metres from each group.

The Event registered about 150 people of various age groups.
About 90 people started at the common start time and the 5K RUN went on to finish in about 90 minutes wherein about 80 people completed the 5K RUN.

It was again the Boy's day where in the future Kid runner of Age 16 timed about 17 min completing first the 5K RUN comfortably.

About 40% Women and Young children went on to finish the RUN very competitively one behind the other.
It was a memorable day for the young girl who is 7 years who ran to complete the 5K RUN along with her other companions.

The Strongest Elder of 70 years went on to finish the RUN comfortably too and thanked the organisation to provide this oppurtunity to show of his strength.

About atleast 10 Senior citizens above 60yrs ran to complete the RUN and in tandem the future kids of the locality ranging from 7 years went on to complete even though the pain showed up on their tender legs.

Memorable moments: A Kid could not run further after the 2K mark who was running with his Dad, The Kid came to me and asked in crying tone whether he will be getting the Prize and I told him you have already won Kid in making up your mind to keep on running. All Runners are Winners wat ya' say guys.

Hope Prakash had a befitting farewell RUN Gala.
And Cheers to Prakash too, he got his name on the Results board as he was the only guy in his age group, Yes it had to be and RUNWALKINDIA was the awaited platform to run his firstever 5K in INDIA.

Many Congrats to all Runners who stood for this Event to be a success.
Soon the digital photo memories shall be posted.

RWI Second Event at lovely JP Park, Mathikere

The Running spirit has caught up at the Mathikere, locality where RWI team conducted its first 5K Run and Kids Run Event. To meet to the other running aspirors who missed due to the late start of the first event are being encouraged with another 5K Run Event.

This Event is towards Prakash Farewell - He initiated the mass running habit among hundreds at our locality, what else could be better than running alongwith him to keep ourselves going and calling upon others to join this wonderful Second Event at JP Park, Mathikere, Bangalore - 54 on Sunday, 20 April 2008 at 7.00amIST.

PRAKASH FAREWELL 5K

Iternary for the Day of Second Event : 5K RUN

Venue : JP Park, Mathikere, Bangalore-54.
Date : 20 April 2008, Sunday.
Time: RACE Start at 7.00 am

Registration will be upto 9 pm on Saturday, 19,April,2008

Prize distribution at 8.15 am.

You can Expect lots of prizes, goodies - gifts, surprise prizes and
not to mention the RUN DRAMA & FUN filled emotional farewell

First Event : Fond memories in digital format

Check out the photos from the first event Come Run the 5K on the Flickr Site. If my intentions are fulfilled, these scenes will be played out a million times all over India in the coming months and years.

First Event : Royal mess, and a Super Duper Success!!

The first event under the RunWalkIndia banner was conducted this Sunday at the JP Park. Being the organizers of a race for the first time, we messed up quite a few things, but more importantly got the important things right!!

Hats off to all the members of the organizing team and the volunteers who made this an incredible experience for everyone!

The numbers at a high level are as follows:

Number of registrants : Around 200

Number of Starters in the 5K race : Around 100

Number of finishers in the 5K race : 76

Number of children in the Kids dash : Around 60

Youngest finisher in the 5K race : 9 years

Can you believe it?!!! Since his name is Prakash it probably is believable

Oldest finisher in the 5K race : 77 years

While there were so many memorable and enjoyable moments during yesterday's event, the one which will be with me for a long time is of a 2 year old kid giving me a million dollar smile when I congratulated her and gave her the medal which her brother had got. Thanks to a bit of organizational bungling, this girl had not got the medal we were giving all the participants in the kids dash, and was inconsolable. So her mother had taken the medal from her brother and requested me to felicitate her. On putting the medal around her neck, and congratulating her, she gave me a huge smile. That made all the troubles worth it for me!

Awesome start!! We got 100 people to run yesterday. Only around 1.3 billion more to go. May the Fair winds blow our way all along the road!

More information, photos, newspaper clips, etc. to come......

First Event: 5K run & Kids' Dash at JP Park, Mathikere, Bangalore

Come run the 5K
Bring your children to have fun in the kids' dash
Help make running events a common part of our society

Prizes for top three finishers
Age category prizes for top finishers in each age category

Surprise prizes as well!

What is the surprise prize? Well, it is a surprise.

Come to JP Park on Sunday April 13th morning at 8:00 AM

Registration Fees on or before Saturday Apr 12th

5k Run : Rs. 250

Kids' race : Rs. 100

Event Day Registration Fees (Apr 13th from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM)

5k Run : Rs. 350
Kids race : Rs. 150

RUN path for the 5K RUN Event at JP Park, 13th April 2008

The RUN path for the 5K RUN Event is marked for one and all for the 13th April '08 Event. Please take a look where you are going to run through the Event. RUN Path at the wonderful JP Park for the 5K RUN on 13 April 2008.

Chennai Runners

Came across Chennai Runners web-site earlier today. Very inspirational logo and catchphrase:

Do more...... Start Running!


About us from the web-site:

Chennai Runners is an informal assembly of people who share a passion for running. Most of us like running long distances. Some of us prefer short distances. But we like running.

This group comprises, in varying fitness levels, the young, the young at heart and people whose youthfulness belies their age. Long distance running with the goal of finishing a marathon drives most of the members in this group. So we draw up schedules, train together, travel to races, exchange stories and experiences.

Running in a group helps us push each other beyond our limits and alleviates the loneliness of running.

Whether you like setting the pace or following your own, join us by subscribing to our Google Group with your email in the subscription box up above.

The blog of the group has been active since December of 2007. One of the Chennai Runners group member informed me the group has been active since 2005 and there are 370 members in the group. They have a regular training schedule which encompasses running, cycling, team-relay, frisbee, cross training and more.

More people benefiting from running

Dr. Rajat Chauhan - Head of sports medicine department of Manipal hospital, Bangalore, and a strong supporter of our efforts- has an inspiring post on his running blog about one Mr. Mohan who battled to lose 16 Kilograms in 15 months, and brought his diabetes under control by jogging 3 KM a day, and a proper diet on a regular basis. Amazing!

Last year, Little India magazine had an article which looked in depth at the high incidence of heart related diseases among people of Indian origin. The article was titled appropriately as Killer Belly. In the context of many in my family and friends back home do have a 'killer belly', I am much more convinced about the need for making running as a sport popular in India, and leading the majority of Indian population on the way to a healthy life style.

Dr. Rajat's blog has quite a few other inspiring nuggets for non-runners and runners alike. I was inspired and amazed by reading on his blog about the marathon run on a treadmill, the Half-marathon before participating in the Delhi Half-Marathon and of the Rajasthan Desert run this year (at least one marathon per day for five consecutive days!).

Also check out the blog of Madhu Avasarala - one of Dr. Rajat's companion on the Rajasthan Desert run.

Scotland Run 10K - A model

I participated in the Scotland Run 10K race this Sunday 30th Mar 2008. The race is one of the 9 races I plan to run as part of my effort to prepare and qualify for the New York City Marathon next year. I took a lot of photos - 79 to be exact - to give my fellow race organizers and RunWalkIndia team members an appreciation of what makes for a fun race event.

Here is the announcement blurb from NYRR website about the race:

One of NYRR's most popular races brought Scotland to Central Park on Sunday, March 30. More than 6,900 people finished the Scotland Run under bright, cool conditions. Karl Dusen (30:52) and Atalelech Ketema (36:51) took home top honors among the men and women, respectively.

I completed the race in 1:15:02 - much better than my earlier expectations. On seeing the timing of the winners of the race, I found that Lance Armstrong - one of my heroes, being a cancer survivor and seven time Tour de France winner - had participated in the race and had finished in 34:56. Another surprising thing from the winners list is of 88 year old Alberto Vargas finishing the race in 46:40!!

Check out the official photos gallery from the event on the NYRR web site.

The photos I took from my cellphone during the event can be accessed on Flickr. Best to start the slide show and change the options at the right hand bottom corner to check on Always show the Title and Description option.