Yogesh Ashok Powar

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    • Baramati Marathon

    Running a Baramati Marathon

    Tags: Marathon Running

    This blog discusses the good and bad parts of commercial marathons.

    It’s been a while since I registered for any commercial marathons. Okay, there are two types of marathons:

    a) Community runs: These are runs organized by the community without any frills and don’t charge runners any big amounts. For example, LSoM. b) Commercial runs: These are runs sponsored, covered in print/digital media. Although both are running events, the core and intentions of each are different.

    Community runs mainly focus on bringing runners and their families together with the sole purpose of spreading awareness about running or local running groups. These runs are often organized by volunteers with budgets these days under 1-2 Lakhs Rs. With such a restrictive budget, often no freebies or grandeur are done for the event.

    Commercial runs are the runs organized with the primary aim not running but something else like commerce, promotion, advertisement, or even politics. Since there is huge funding involved, ~ 1/2 Cr Rs, freebies, promotions, celebrities are part of the package.

    Anyways, for the past couple of years, I didn’t register for any commercial marathon. One of the reasons for this is I am a big fan of community runs and distributed models for a larger impact. My current company is donating to Tata Mumbai Marathon, and they called for runners who can run at the event. Hence, I registered, assuming that my last triathlon event’s certificate could satisfy their selection criterion, and that didn’t. Hence, on short notice, I had to find a Marathon happening in one week’s time and provide its timed certificate for TMM. And Baramathi Power Marathon came to my rescue; I had to connect with the organizers, and offline registration was done just 4 days in advance.

    I took this opportunity to attend the event in a different way; to use public transport and without doing any online reservation or online help.

    Following is from the travel journal

    25th Nov (the day before the event)

    26th Nov

    Overall Rs 1745 were spent on travel and stay, and 1550 were spent for the event making the total of Rs 3295 to explore Baramati and also get a timed certificate.

    Overall the Marathon was very well organized thanks to a) Good road infrastructure of Baramati: I must admit that it was the best barefoot route I’ve experienced so far. b) Muscle power: After all, we are talking about Pawar Family’s Baramati

    Unlike other commercial marathons, what was different about this one was

    1. Every closed junction or road had a police officer in Khaki Uniform
    2. A Huge stage, with 50+ seatings on it (Like Political party Sabha); In fact, everyone who held the mic was thanking Shri Ajitdada Pawar & family.
    3. The entire venue was on 2 or 3 size football ground, all covered with Mats and temporary tents, music, LEDs, selfie rotation stands, and mirrors & displays.
    4. Lunch for breakfast (Shira, upit, Paratha, curd, soybean, sprouts, shev, papadi, different types of teas and coffee)
    5. Free goodies like Bag, Aluminum Water bottle and T-shirt for just 1550 Rs of registration. It’s much less as compared to TMM (2800+) or SHHM (2000+)

    In a way, these events aren’t really doing anything wrong, but their way of organizing things might not work every day or everywhere. It could be fine for a yearly event if someone sponsors it, but can it keep going forever? The image they show might make people happy on that day, but what runners want is changing because of this. It’s getting harder to bring in new runners for community runs because running is starting to seem more about glamour.

    In some ways, what commercial marathons are doing to runners is like what movies did to small theaters, or what OTTs are doing to traditional cinemas. It’s similar to how free apps like Facebook, Google, or Windows changed the game for free software and websites. It’s a shift from lots of different sources to just a few, from big groups deciding everything to people having less freedom. This trend is teaching the new generation that everything needs big support or approval from important figures.

    Power, by its nature, often tends to consolidate itself, seeking centralization. On the other hand, society, in a long run, inclines towards decentralization. Communities, individuals, and certain social structures often strive for autonomy, seeking local control, decision-making, and independence.

    This interplay between the two forces defines the dynamics within a society. Its delicate balance is what everyone responsibility in life.

    Tags: Marathon Running
    Updated on: 2023-11-27