Pune: APG Running has set up an Executive Advisory Committee (EAC) comprising seasoned endurance runners to guide run preparations for their flagship Pune Half Marathon, which is listed to be run on December 22.
Headed by Vikas Singh, who founded the event last year, his six-member team has professionals from diverse fields but one passion—running for healthy life.
The EAC will help in fine tuning the details of making the run a ‘Runner Friendly’ event. Given that the members themselves are runners and have participated in various races across the world, they bring with them significant institutional knowledge of long distance running.
The EAC will be working with other mentors and pacers too over the next several weeks leading up to the Bajaj Allianz Pune Half Marathon.
Executive Advisory Committee BAPHM
Vikas Singh: Chair of the committee and founder of this event, Vikas brings his passion and experience of year of running to this event. He founded this event in 2018 to ensure inclusive health for people from all walks of life. He focuses on training a lot more than the race itself, which drove him to start training programmes across the city where people could assemble and learn basics of being healthy. He was instrumental in bringing legends of endurance sports—Dr Jack Daniels, Ryan Hall and Jay Bawcom—over the last year to make people more aware of how it is not difficult to work towards being healthy. A seasoned runner himself and has been running for almost two decades, most recently it being Chicago Marathon a couple of weeks ago.
Vineeta Jadhavrao: The first woman back-to-back Comrades finisher from Pune. She believes that running is the most basic form of exercise with immense health benefits if pursued sustainably. Vineeta’s immense knowledge of long term training, discipline, diligence would help participants learn from her.
Satish Gujaran: The only Indian to have finished consecutive 10 Comrades Marathon and ‘green number holder’ for India believes in taking baby steps before taking a leap. He thinks running journey is a gradual process and that reflects truly in his life as he could not even complete a 1-km stretch 15 years ago when he started his fitness journey after quitting smoking.
Kaustubh Radkar: 24itme Ironman finisher and only Indian Ironman KONA World Championship Finisher of 2017. An Ironman certified coach, Radkar has been Ironman All World Silver Athlete and was fastest Indian at Comrades Ultramarathon 2016.
Amod Bhate: One of the fastest marathoners in Pune, Amod is an IT professional and coaches people for them to be efficient runners by learning right techniques. He has been running for two decades now but he built his endurance base for more than 10 years before going on to complete several marathons including Boston, Chicago and Comrades.
EAC’s focus areas
