A marathon at Patna – this was an idea which struck some of us around mid-2011. A culmination of thoughts, a collaborative effort, brainstorming, campaigning, learning, planning and executing.. we’ve come a long way!
The idea of Patna Marathon was a result of doing something for Patna and thus Bihar by people from Bihari diaspora who wanted to do something, however small it be, to contribute to development of Bihar. For a state where infrastructure is now being built up, sports infrastructure was non-existent, a run is something which doesn’t needs any stadium or turf – you can run on grass, on tar pitched roads, in fields around your home, anywhere.
Many people joined together and the idea was born – we are going to have a marathon in October 2011. Easy? Not so! When we started brainstorming, we realised that October 2011 is too early to plan and prepare.. that’s when we chose a realistic target – 22 March 2012. During talks with some Government key people, it was advised to keep it on 19 February 2012, being the culminating day of Prawasi Bihari Diwas, where over 1,000 people from across 25 countries are participating and it would have been good to use the date for maximum participation.
Our patrons providing necessary guidance from time to time. Our CEO took a three months sabbatical from his assignment at USA to work for the success of Patna Marathon. Our President visited for two week from Europe to push the sponsorship drive. Our Director reached out to over 2 lakh individuals. Our CIO putting up an excellent site, coordinating with ticketing partner and fundraising partner to make a smooth online experience. Our GM taking time out during her Dubai vacations for promotions and photo-shoot for Patna Marathon in UAE. Our VP taking one week off every month visiting ground zero to push up the morale and preparations. Our creative team churning out really wonderful and pleasant graphics and for the first time in history, posters for Patna Marathon in Madhubani art. Our volunteer coming out with an idea of having a beautiful and meaningful mascot – Paltan – the Gangetic Dolphin and our creative team providing running shoes to him. Our team member extending all possible support from Radio Mirchi. Our Director roping in sports journalists to provide good coverage. Our Volunteers providing critical and valuable inputs from time to time. Global team taking turn to visit ground zero. Everyone coming together to have morning walk/run at Patna Zoo, Gandhi Maidan, Moin-ul-Haq stadium, BMP Ground. A renowned Patna family donating huge office space at prime location near Gandhi Maidan. Overall, a wonderful team.
Planning started, routes recced, videographed.. a brilliant site put up.. a massive online campaign started.. some outline documents created.. tentative and speculative budget created. Problem – the budget came as huge and we didn’t knew what to offer. Tried all sort of help, to no avail.. finally started from scratch and came up with a base proposal. Brainstormed with team and people and had to revise many times based on constructive feedback. The question was – where the organisations were habitual of spending ‘X’ amount on events in Bihar, why would they spend 100X? The proposal had to be created in a way that the return to sponsor was 100X+Y, the reach they would themselves not be able to get. We had to provide something extra – the ‘Y’ factor. Finally version 2.0 came up. Good team work!
While the ground team was sweating day and night to get the necessary approvals, creating buzz in and around Patna and Bihar, organising small events to raise awareness, the marketing team geographically spread across length and breadth of India started reaching out to prospective sponsors. Some outright rejections, some small successes.. what was needed was a big boom of having secured the Title Sponsor. Days passing by and stress climbing up… could be seen clearly. Finally come 18th January, exactly 40 days to the D-day and we’re bang on! A major financial player comes on board as Title Sponsor!
A dream which is turning into reality and this time – Daudega Patna, Dekhegi Duniya!
Wonderful experience to be part of such a nice team and now that thoughts have come to ground, it’s time to Run – Go Patna Go!
Get Updates on SMS & Mail
