Aura manages the annual Dawn to Dusk running and cycling marathon

Aura, in collaboration with the Dusk to Dawn team championed by Neville Billimoria and sponsor partners Round Table India, Dream Runners and Cool Runners and a whole army of benevolent stakeholders, has been organizing this unusual cause-led marathon for three years now. The proceeds of the race have, year on year, always gone towards the funding of resources for the schooling of underprivileged or handicapped children – a cause that is held dear both by Aura and the D2D team.

Aura’s End to End Organization – Lights at every step of the way

Organizing a Night Marathon has its own matrix of unusual challenges that daytime sports events don’t have to face. A simple requirement of fully functioning street lights all along the route is a small example. Right from safe routes for all runners, down to clearly visible markers, health monitoring teams, traffic management and police permissions, everything was ensured. Although these are considered hygiene factors for daytime runs, they take on a different complexity when the event is after sundown placing added emphasis on no margin for error.

The Wheeler Dealers - Cycling Category

Preceding the Runners Marathon, Aura organized the Cycling Marathon in four categories 25K, 50K, 100K and 125K. 500 cyclists were flagged off at 3:00 PM, returning to the city at 8:00 PM. This route needed special attention, especially as the cyclists would be moving from day to night during the course of the race

Kids R Us – Children’s Category

The children’s category was no less challenging just because the participants were pint-sized. There were two runs in this category – 3K and 5K, for ages 8 and above. Flagged off at 11:30 PM, they needed little encouragement as running a race in the midnight hours was thrilling enough!

When the marathon was finally over - Chennaites from the ages of 8 to 80 finally kicked off their running shoes and went home happy to have been part of yet another unforgettable experience, but more importantly felt good to know that their midnight run would light up a child’s education, somewhere

“It is a truly humbling experience for all of us at Aura to be part of the D2D Night Marathon for the third time. To witness such wide-scale participation from all age groups – all running and cycling through the night to contribute to a child’s education speaks volumes for our humaneness. May this good work continue for a long time to come,” says Siddharth Ganeriwala, Director and CEO, Aura.