Be it for health, charity, fad or fitness, urban India is fast getting into its running shoes for fun, frolic and commitment. SANGEETA YADAV delves into this growing culture, making India healthy

For some, running is a pure sport. For others, it as a fitness activity and for yet others, an event for a community get-together for fun, socialising and supporting a cause. Whatever may be the ultimate goal, the fact is that urban India is waking up to accept running as a healthy way of living, thanks to the trend of marathons.

This new-age health trend is a crucial spoke in the wheel of the health revolution India is undergoing. “Running as a preferred activity that became popular some 10 years back. With major running events starting to happen in metros, it came to limelight and more and more people started to run longer distances. I started running in 2009, after turning 42 and there has been no looking back. Earlier, people running on roads was a training activity and not much appreciated but now wherever you are running, you are cheered, offered water and fruits etc,” says coach Ravinder Singh, the organiser of Starry Night Marathon scheduled to be held on October 7, 2017 from 9 pm in Gurugram.

Call it a western influence or an attempt to live a healthy life, the running culture in India has been evolving by leaps and bounds. “This culture is growing much faster pace in India than in the Western world for one simple reason — we are a more densely populated developing country, we love challenges, we strive for perfection and yes we are competitive,” Gagan Arora,  coach of Reebok Running Squad and founder of Kosmic Fitness, asserts.

“At the international level, there are around 15,000-50,000 people running a full marathon. They are very serious about it and train for it much in advance. Till about three-four years back, there were not many marathons in India. But you can see the change. The interest in running is huge. There is a buzz around running with parks and running routes full of people from all walks of life,” Nagaraj Adiga, race director, of IDBI Federal life Insurance Mumbai Half Marathon and New Delhi Marathon and chairman and MD, NEB Sports Entertainment Pvt ltd, says.

What powers running as a concept more than any other sporting physical activity is the fact that it requires minimum investment and comes with multiple advantages. “Running takes you ‘Aging to Ageless’. Running is the new Golf, I would say. Fit people are positive people and positive people are normally happy and efficient people,” Singh tells you, adding that they are supporting less-privileged runners through the Run With Me Foundation which props up beginners.  Apart from the Starry Night Marathon, Singh also organises Noida International Marathon, and Intelenet Trail-A-Thon— a 12-hour Ultra Run at Aravali Hills, Dashers’ Delight, Women 10K Run, Pathways Aravali, Columbia Annual Trail Run and Bhumi Run in Gurugram. Delhi runs include Delhi Heritage Half Marathon, The Potpourri Challenge, World Disability Day Run with National, and Kangra runs includes Kangra X-Country and Shivalik Ultra Run.

Running also gives ‘Me Time’ to people. “Running is a philosophy. It is spiritual and you need to have faith in yourself that you can be a good runner and train for it. Running is not just about gaining muscle but a belief that drives you in the healthy direction,” Mishra says.

For corporate, running is the new boardroom where each person’s performance is put to test. “Running is our new boardroom. Through runs, we often evaluate our employees’ endurance, competitiveness and personality development. It shapes decision-making in its own way. Moreover, running is a sport where you are your own Sachin Tendulkar. Irrespective of whether you are the CEO of the company or an employee or an unemployed person, at 5 am at the training ground, you are equal. You are your own Usain Bolt. For us, it is a participatory sport. After the run, the employee is energised,” explains Dilip Jayaram, CEO, Procam International, whose Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (ADHM) is scheduled to be held on November 19, 2017.

With the rising trend of running, the definition of this beneficial physical activity has evolved. “I define running as living your life at full potential. Running takes it to another level of fitness, getting more out of life. It trains your body to generate more energy that reflects into other areas of your life whether it is work, family, friends or sports performance. It makes you feel and look good. Marathons test the ability of an individual to overcome physical, mental and emotional challenges. Rediscovering self on the other side of the finish line is an amazing experience. All recreational runners should train for and run at least one full marathon in their life. Those who don’t run, it’s a strong recommendation to at least walk for 60 minutes or 10,000 steps a day,” Arora recommends.

Marathons have been one of the biggest propellers to develop the running culture. They have a history. The ancient Athens Classic 42.195 km marathon is not just a random number. All marathons are based on a legend from which the race gained its name — Pheidippides, a messenger in Ancient Greece, ran 42.195 km from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce Greek victory over the Persians.

What started off as a running event 13 years back in India with the Mumbai Marathon and then Airtel Delhi Half Marathon has spread across many cities. “We have over 800 races across India. There might be 15 or 20 of them which don’t happen because they are not been able to sustain themselves. But we are still growing at the 15  to 20 year-on-year mark in terms of the number of races,” Jayaram says adding that Procam also organises runs in various cities like Ahmedabad, Nashik, Bhubaneswar, Thanjavur, Hampi, Pune, Kalyan, lucknow, Indore, Surat, Jaipur, Auroville, Kolkata, Coorg, Kochi, Panjim among others. Their international races include Tokyo Marathon, Boston Marathon, london Marathon, Comrades Marathon, Durban, Berlin Marathon, Chicago Marathon and New York City Marathon.

Earlier there used to be just three to four events throughout the year in the entire country. Now, every town and city is organising some or other event every other weekend. “In cities, an average age of a runner is around 40 years which is decreasing with more and more youngsters joining in. In rural areas, only the youth runs, as they prepare for recruitment and education through sports quotas. These running events have been instrumental in converting walkers into runners, as you know walkers are the biggest community around,” Singh tells you.

Numerous fitness groups, like the Reebok Running Squad, RunXtreme, Sunday Run Club, Gurgaon Road Runners, Nike+ Run Club etc have mushroomed to train people for running. From schoolchildren to college-goers to parents, grandparents to specially-abled people, the sense of running for a cause has been inculcated through marathons, be it for Save the Girl Child, or to promote education.

“Prestigious events are great platforms for fundraising too. I am running this year to support an NGO taking care of street-children, providing home, education and food. We value people and relationships and share a non-judgmental unique point of interest in running,” Arora says.

Today, running is the single biggest charity platform in the country. “We have raised around Rs 300 crore for a 700 plus causes. It’s growing more and more exponentially. We didn’t turn around and say we have to raise funds. We say we have to raise awareness and make friends. At the upcoming ADHM, we are introducing a new race category of 10 km timed race available only via charity. The India Care Foundation will be holding out the 10 K bibs. Any runner, who will like to run this 10 km race, will have to contribute to a cause. This will be the largest public-private partnership with 28 Government departments working seamlessly to create a great participative sport,” Jayaram says.

Talking about developing the charity model around the marathon, he adds: “We created a model to get a charity partner on board, like India Care Foundation in Delhi and Bengaluru, United Way Mumbai and United Way Kolkata. The philanthropic partner doesn’t work with a particular cause, like the girl child or saving the tiger. They are philanthropy exchangers. For instance, a fundraiser for an NGO would pitch to every corporate film and client to seek funds. From there, we build the capacity of the NGOs with our charity partner.  We have started showing them how to pitch.”

Indian Triathlete, Marathoner and Ultra-Runner Abhishek Mishra, who organises Millennium City Marathon on October 29 in Gurugram and lucknow City Half Marathon opines that making a running friendly community and the environment is another big thing. While driving when you see a runner on the road, you slow down, give space and don’t over speed or splash roadside water on him. A lot of women face issues of security. Somebody will hoot and pass bad comments. One has to make it a safe running environment for them with enough security and volunteers.

“As a runner, you are conscious about the environment and make it a point to not throw water bottles and other waste materials which are provided at running events. There has to be a sense of responsibility in every person to keep the place clean and make it running friendly. One of our initiatives with DlF Foundation is about planting trees on the route where we will be running to make the surrounding running friendly. The route that we are developing this year, we aim that by next five years, this route will be a paradise for runners and walkers,” Mishra tells you.

To encourage people to run marathons, NGOs and corporate offices are coming up with great fitness initiatives. “Companies have put up a treadmill where people run a km and the company gives out Rs 100 for each km for a particular cause for which the employees run. Godrej has an interesting model wherein employees have the option to sign off their leaves by converting them into money for a good cause. People put their four days of salary in ‘saving the tiger’ and 8 days for the girl child cause. That much money gets stored,” Jayaram explains.

Another factor propelling the running culture is the advent of international brands and companies offering interesting apparels and fitness accessories. “As we all know what is hyped is sold quickly. Various brands have jumped into the market and made marathons a commercially successful formula to sell their products to a well-off, emotionally charged super active community,” Arora says.

Though there are many marathons that are organised every second week in Delhi, only a few have done well and, thus, runners like to come back for them. For the first-time runners, such events are a great stepping stone. “There is a difference between doing a proper marathon event and small community runs every weekend. At marathons like ADHM which happen at an international level, you end up making a huge impact on society through awareness programmes. Operationally, such events are very well done. But at smaller marathons and community runs, you don’t block traffic, set-up a stage for interaction, etc. Though the quality of small-scale runs is average, it is a stepping stone for first-time runners,” Mishra explains.

Indeed, the India running calendar is flooded with events. But there are both pros and cons to it. “Pros being, it is easily accessible. People run mostly small races between 3-10 km just for fun. Getting active on the social media about their recent runs and achievements is another high for most novices. Cons are that if you sign-up for every other event, there is hardly any time to train, prepare and improve your race times. It takes approximately three to four months and five to six months to prepare for a half and full marathon, respectively. Please be considerate while choosing an event and train accordingly,” Arora requests.

Running has become a business but to have a sustainable run and an effective impact on society, one needs to improve the quality of running and training for the runners. “Volunteers who used to support us two-three years back are now organising runs for social causes like women empowerment etc. But in such events, out of 500 people who register for running, only 50 actually run. Rest do brisk walking. How is it a run for women empowermentIJ There are no huge audiences to encourage them,” Mishra asks.

Moreover, getting permission from authorities has become a tough task. “Police authorities told us that in October, for the same day they have requests for five runs. In Delhi, there are only three running routes — either Nehru Park, India Gate or Jawahar lal Nehru stadium. Giving permission every week becomes troublesome for the administration and local authorities. Now they are coming up with the rule that if you want to organise a run, you have to give money and a proper order which will be passed from the police authorities and civic bodies for the arrangements. The smaller events might stop,” Mishra explains.

Apart from Pinkathon which is the biggest women-only marathon and Salwan Marathon for children under 18 years of age, many other new marathons are coming up. Duracell is organising Durathon —Mumbai’s first family run on November 12, 2017. “Durathon is Mumbai’s first family run. Just like the famous running Duracell Bunny, children and their parents will have the opportunity to show how they can go stronger for longer as they unlock their inner power when finishing together a 2K or 5K run. Duracell’s Running Bunny is an iconic symbol of the Duracell brand, symbolising power and longevity so our connection to running has always been strong. This would be a great inspiration for our family runners,” organiser David Abraham says.

Meanwhile, the BSF Marathon, for which registrations started on September 7, has got 1,253 entries so far. The fee for the 21 km run is Rs 500 and Rs 350 for Run For Fun. Each participant would get finisher medal, certificate, a T-shirt, BIB number and a goody bag comprising healthy products.

“For the first time, we are conducting a marathon at such a big scale in eight to 10 locations at the same time at Delhi, Kolkata, Shillong, Guwahati, Chandigarh etc. This marathon will pay tribute to our martyrs and help their families financially by generating funds. We are expecting 4,000 participants at each venue. We have taken sponsorship only from PSUs. We wanted to be associated with companies not looking for commercial interest drives. Since the run is for a national cause, people donating in this run will be exempted for that amount from income tax,” Krishna Rao, Second-in-command, BSF says.

India’s longest running circuit the 10K Intencity Marathon which started from September 10, 2017 and will culminate on February 11, 2018 is an exciting sporting event that provides a platform to nurture and groom the country’s top runners to compete at the 2020 Olympics, and to contribute to the Government initiative to make India healthy. Helmed by former Olympian Anand Menezes, Padma Bhushan Awardee P Gopichand is the brand ambassador for this marathon.

UPCOMING RUNS

• October 7: Pink Midnight Half Marathon, Ahmedabad & Gurugram Starry Night Half Marathon, Gurugram
• October 8: Hyderabad Half Triathlon & Nasik Marathon
• October 14: Glow Run Half Marathon, Chandigarh
• October 15: Rishikesh Running And living Cross Country 25K — Half, & Sai International Half Marathon Shirdi
• October 15: Dehradun Half Marathon, Surat City Half Marathon, Pinkathon Guwahati & Hari Bhoomi Half Marathon, Rohtak
• October 22: BSF Half Marathon
• October 29: Millennium City Half Marathon, Gurugram; Mile Runners India Half Marathon Bangalore & Mussoorie Half Marathon
• November 5: Songs of Sunrise Half marathon Mumbai & Go Heritage Run, Srirangapatnam
• November 19: Airtel Delhi Half Marathon & Navy Half Marathon, Mumbai
• November 26: Airtel Run For Education, Kolkata & Rohtak Half Marathon
• December 3: Gurgaon Running & living Half Marathon & Noida Express Half Marathon
• December 10: The Barefoot Half Marathon, Coorg
• December 17: Great Northeastern Run, Guwahati; Great Half Marathon, Delhi & TATA Steel Kolkata 25K
• December 24: Pink City Marathon, 21K, Jaipur; Run For A Cause Half Marathon, Gurugram & White Shimla Marathon
• January 14, 2018: Winter Delhi Half Marathon
• January 21: Tata Mumbai Half Marathon