Here’s the email I got from Santosh:
Dear Friends,
Running, cycling and exercising has many benefits for a healthy lifestyle and anyone can develop a passion for it. The first step to exercising – running, walking, cycling, swimming etc. is to just get out and do it!! It doesn’t matter for how long, how far or how fast – You are already a champion for gritting it out once you start!
Welcome to Strides of Hope ( www.stridesofhope.com ) – this is the second edition of the first of its kind ever organized in India – a 48 Hour Endurance Run and Ride!
This event is an effort organized by the running and cycling community of Bangalore to encourage more and more of its citizens to take up a healthy and environment friendly lifestyle. The event in itself will be a 48 hour continuous run and cycle ride by the community of Bangalore around parks and popular roads in Bangalore. We will all come together irrespective of age, sex, religion, caste, class or anything else that might keep us apart! This is also an effort to raise awareness about education for the underprivileged children in India.
Through this 48 hour run and ride, we intend to create awareness about:
* Asha and its efforts for socio-economic change in India – (http://www.stridesofhope.com/about-asha.html)
* The need for a healthy lifestyle and running or cycling as a sport to improve fitness of the country (http://www.stridesofhope.com/why-running.html)
* Ultra marathoners and endurance athletes who are taking up challenges in pursuit of their passion
Except for short breaks for food and toilet use, there will be runners running and cyclists riding for the entire 48 hours! We will have someone running, walking or cycling for the entire duration.
The goal is to get the city exercising as a team for 48 hours on a relay basis!
Registration Fee: It is a FREE event! In fact, the only monetary transaction will be donations and funds raised for Asha. This is the first event where the whole running and cycling community will come together to host the event without any sponsorship (donations from organizations would be accepted) or profits from organizing it. Every partner is contributing to the event pro-bono with no monetary returns gained from the event.
Date and Time: 21st January, 5:00 P.M to 23rd January, 5:00 P.M
Route: http://www.stridesofhope.com/route.html
(The run will span major running locations in the city – Cubbon Park, Lal bagh, EGL Road (Embassy Golf Links), Ulsoor Lake. Runners can join at any of the locations based on the time slots. Simple refreshments and water will be provided at these locations through the duration of the run. The cycle ride will be between Bangalore and Hyderabad on NH7. Cyclists can join at scheduled points and times.)
Distance: You can choose to do any distance you like over the 48 hours. Please note that you should have trained and cleared by Doctors before doing long distances.You will be responsible for your own safety, though there will be medics on call. You can choose to walk, run or cycle.
Timing and Results: This one is for the joy of running, walking and cycling! There is one goal (48 hours of moving) that we as runners, walkers or cyclists will achieve. There will be no timing or prizes. We would like to keep track of distances covered by each participant (approximate measure would do) and the time they ran for. We will then get cumulative statistics at the end of the run.
Register here – http://www.stridesofhope.com/register.html
Please do register now to keep Bangalore moving and also spread the word amongst colleagues, friends and family! Lets all embrace this unique event and provide our support for the causes by running, walking or cycling!
See you all on the roads!!
Thanks,
Santhosh.
(For Strides of Hope)
⊕
The organizers have done the WORST POSSIBLE JOB in planning this event shutting down all the routes to reach to ITPL. Organizers had only planned the event with only the people working in general or normal shifts in mind. They were INFACT NEGLIGENT to the fact that people work in 24/7 environment ensuring some of the essential services up and working.. They had turned a blind eye to the fact that people would be returning from night shifts after staying wake for more than 12hours in the night. The worst facts being that no announcements and notifications given on the closure of roads to reach ITPL and no alternate routes also were in place to reach and move out of ITPL. This is just another way of creating a public nuisance as ,the same as that on 22nd January which was due to political reasons.
This would be probably go down that as a WORST PLANNED EVENT IN 2011.
I am writing this again after the midnight marathon experience recently. It is great that events like this are planned and organized. However, there are always people moving about at any given time, even late at night on a weekend or early in the morning on Sunday. I was stunned, returning home after grocery shopping to realize that this cycle event was happening on the road. I would have taken another route, had I known. The organizers should find a way to publicize the traffic impact as much as the event. Then people can plan alternatives (which are limited in this part of town).
Next year, I plan to watch out for this event and hound the organizers on publishing a traffic impact plan.