'Women today are more health-conscious, and aware of fitness'

Dilip Jayaram is the CEO of Procam International, the brand that has democratised running in India through the various marathons, including the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon and the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon. Better known as DJ, he has over two decades of experience in media and sports. He also has, to his credit, the conceptualization of India's first sports league, the Premier Hockey League (PHL).

In a freewheeling chat, Jayaram, who himself has tremendous interest in running and sports, tells Lopamudra Ghatak how running has changed over the years with more women shedding their inhibitions and participating.

Q. India's first annual marathon was launched in Pune in 1983. Today, more than 300 runs happen annually. How has the transition happened?

Dilip Jayaram: The transition has been in the sporting landscape of India. The past decade has seen new sports initiatives coming up with leagues in cricket, tennis, badminton, kabbadi and soccer raising the bar. While these have been changes in 'spectatorial' sport, there has also been a revolution in 'participative' sport. 'Spectatorial' sport gets consumed by enthusiasts, fans and people, and the involvement is more in terms of attaining emotional equity as it is watched either from the stands or through television.

Participative sport, on the other hand, is different. In this, there isn't only emotional equity but participation as well. You are the athlete who trains and prepares for being able to take on your own challenges on a race day. These are working athletes, athletes in training at 5:00 am who are professionals at work at 9:00 am.

While road races have been conducted at various scales in the country, the catalyst that triggered the juggernaut we see today was the Mumbai Marathon in 2004. The five pillars - Mumbai's pride and prestige, communal harmony, health and fitness, boost to Indian athletics and charity - that were seeded when the Mumbai Marathon was started, have shown substantial results since.

With an increase in consciousness about health, running became the accessible sport which didn't need memberships and expensive equipment. The coaches were senior runners, who in turn, formed run clubs and forums to train amateurs. These amateurs who were training regularly needed races to hone their skills before staking a claim to register for the pinnacle races in Mumbai, Delhi & Bangalore.

As the groundswell kept increasing, so did races offering unique facets and layers to invite runners to participate. As our working athletes got better, so did their hunger to be able to participate in road races across the world. The timing certificates from the Big 4 races in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata could be used to register for races internationally and to be able to establish their preparedness - a whole new sport and market evolved.

Q. You can be called a pro at organising marathons. What are the challenges that you have faced?

Dilip Jayaram: Over the past three decades, Procam International has been at the forefront of promoting non-cricket sports. In 2004, we launched the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM), followed by the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon ( ADHM) in 2005 and the World 10k in Bangalore in 2008. In 2014 we launched a national event in Kolkata over the 25K distance, with the intent of moving it to a world property once we attain the ground swell in the east. Road Races are large public-private partnerships and the unstinted support from all the city authorities has resulted in being able to set up picturesque courses encompassing definitive city landmarks. Additionally, global brands like Standard Chartered, Tata Consultancy Services, Airtel and Tata Steel, have been visionary sponsors. Today, running is the single-largest generator of awareness and funds for over 700 causes, creating a 'feel-good' factor.

Initially, one of the most important challenges we faced was to get people to move away from their sedentary lifestyle and take to the streets. Unlike other sports, where the playing environment is enclosed like a stadium, and public consumption is viewing, in road races, it's the city roads which metamorphose into an international course where a world record established would be accepted and held. The playing turf in this sport is the city roads and to achieve this, we deploy 150 thousand litres of water, hundreds of medical personnel and systems, energy drinks, orange and salt for runners, timing mats, toilets and many more course facilities. Also, at the end of the race ALL runners are fed a hot breakfast. Managing all these aspects in a green and 100% waste-managed environment has been an achievement that we are proud of.

Q. There is a rising trend of women running marathons. What do you think has fuelled that?

Dilip Jayaram: The apex governing the body of road races, Association of International Marathons and distance races (AIMS), has always promoted running amongst women. And the reason being that, it has been established woman runners have a larger positive ripple on family and society.

We remember a lady runner, who had approached us and described how she shifted to 'ragi' from wheat as part of her endeavour to inculcate healthier food habits in her children. When her children refused to eat, she enrolled in a cooking class to figure out how to make ragi taste good so that her children would eat it. Women today are more conscious of health and fitness issues and are very aware of the benefits of an active lifestyle. I think this would be the single-largest factor that has fuelled the increase in women participants.

Q. What is the ratio of men-women running the marathons?

Dilip Jayaram: For running events organised by us at Procam, the participation by women has shown a significant increase of almost 50-75% in the last three years.

Q. How different is running in India and other parts of the world?

Dilip Jayaram: One key difference would be the climate and the seasonality of running in India as against the rest of the world. We are a tropical country, and road running does get impacted in peak summer and the rainy season.

Secondly, we are a very colourful country and races in India encompass the entire city and its people celebrating the spirit of the runners.

Q. What are the things to look forward to in 2017?

Dilip Jayaram: A lot of more running! The sport is seeing a surge in knowledge being seeded. More runners from India are today running in races across the world and are bringing back best practices that they witness amongst runners. A lot more is being invested by brands to be able to make themselves relevant at the 'point of sweat' and not just the 'point of sale'. Today brands are working with all aspects of running like nutrition, recovery, restoration, and, all these, together, will enhance the running experience for the working athletes.

Q. What is your personal association with running?

Dilip Jayaram: Running is the building block of all sport, and irrespective of whichever sport you play, it all starts with running. Personally, I am a sprinter and don't do endurance runs as I have multiple slipped discs and have been through a few spine surgeries. Amongst the highs I had in the sport was finishing third at the CEO dash in the TCS World 10k in 2015. I also had the good fortune of being the highest fund-raiser and establishing a case study for NGOs to be able to reach out to runners.

ALSO READ: Special coverage: India Inc Women Bosses Who Run