22 May 08

Attendees: Sharad, Sriram, Siva, Anita, Santhosh, Sanjeev

Please note the change in dates for the Kaveri trail marathon (Oct 19, not Nov) and the Ultra (Nov 16, not Dec)

Last year's program

* The marathon program raised about Rs 75,000 through US donations and Rs 2,25,000 in India :)
* With the Bangalore marathon dates getting moved, it was hard to sustain enthusiasm for training, especially for people interested in running the half-marathon. The training program stretched over 4 months, which is ok for a marathon but people training for the half seemed to have lost interest.
* We had good experience running the Kaveri Trail, Ultra and Auroville. The focus will be on these 3 races for the coming program.
* Runners were not serious about the training. People ran less than 50% of the runs suggested in the schedule.

Races

We will be targeting on the following races. Training for the half-marathon will start about 2 months before the race and training for the full will starts 4 months before the race.

Kaveri Trail Marathon - Oct 19 (Sharad to find details about the race)
Ultra Marathon - Nov 16 (Anita to find details about the race)
Auroville Half Marathon - (Sriram to find details about the race)
Delhi Half Marathon - Oct
Mumbai Half Marathon - Jan

* The races we will be focusing our training on are Kaveri and the Ultra. The Auroville half/full can be a run that we can participate in together. All of these races were runner-friendly trail races and held in nice locations (no auto billowing exhaust in your face!).
* If any runners want to run Delhi half and Mumbai half/full to be run, we will provide them with training support.

Training

- Dates
Kaveri Trail Marathon - Oct 19.
Ultra - Nov 16. (registrations start from Aug15, 2008)

- Since the Kaveri marathon is slated for mid-October, we will need to begin training by mid-June. The training for the half marathon can start mid-August.
- Santhosh will be the coach this year. He has run many marathons and ultra marathons over the last 3 years and was a coach for half-marathon runners in Austin (with Rogue Training Systems, the group Team Asha partners with in Austin)
- Unlike last year, when we tried to meet up every weekend, we will pick 6 weekends out of the 20 weeks of training when all runners get together. Rest of the time, a group will still be running either with RFL or elsewhere, so runners are free to join.
- Have a session on strength training.
- Organize runs in Asha supported projects.
- Meet over dinners every 2 months.
- Have a session on Running Shoes

Fundraising

- Fundraising target of Rs 500 / km will be our target for this year, since it seems to have worked out for all the people who raised money last year. There was a suggestion to increase this target but we decided to hold it at this amount till we get the program into shape.

Sponsorship

- Work on getting corporates to support the team. We need to create a packet. Siva to check with Infosys.


Target Population & Publicity

- Sharad suggested publicizing on Bangalore metblogs - Need owner. Sharad?
- Sanjeev suggested we publicize in our apartment complexes. Might be easier to get a group of people in one place, to run together etc.
- Publicize in Colleges - Need owner.

Action Items & Owners

- Fix date for the information session
- Publicity material to be created soon - Anita
- Accounting - Siva to work on EFTs and Credit Card donations
- Sponsorship Packet - Need owner.