Three years ago, a group of five Cummins employees took to the streets of Chillicothe, Ohio, and surrounding country roads and trails of Ross County to try to decrease teenage drug use in that area.
After doing a 200-mile relay race from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2019, to raise money to combat homelessness, the Columbus Running Buddies did the Ohio-based “Buck Fifty” again last year. That time, however, they did it virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, Ganesh Badve, Shripad Deshpande, Hareen Illa, Jugander Kumar and Rajib Panda were back in Chillicothe for the 150-mile race.
“We really like the cause,” Kumar said. “For someone, a buck-50 may be one dollar, 50 cents. But for us, it’s 150 miles, and that requires a lot of dedication, a lot of energy, a lot of hard work and those kind of things. We like difficult challenges.”
The cause is the hope for drug-free teenagers. The back of the finishers’ medals reads, “Inspiring the community through running with a mission to keep kids off of drugs.”
“They have taken 2,000 kids who are drug users, and they are attending their lives,” Panda said. “They’re making sure that they get out of drugs, get to a good school and they’re taking care of all the expenses and everything that the kids would need to go further in their life.”
About 400 people from the Chillicothe area, including roughly 100 teachers, volunteered for the event, which began the evening of April 16 and continued through the night until the following evening.
“They managed it very well,” Deshpande said. “The arrangements were superb. The kept all the precautions in mind that we were to follow for COVID, the social distancing and everything. I was really impressed with that.”
The five runners took turns running three-to-seven-mile legs. One of the five who wasn’t running would drive the van.
“One big difference from previous races, one lesson that we learned not to run four legs at one stretch,” Badve said. “That is taxing. This time, we limited it to one leg at a time, and that helped a lot. We were so fresh even after the race.”
That was despite being only a five-person team. All but seven of the 75 participating teams had 10 runners.
“When we were running in the night, we were passing one guy, and we just started conversing,” Panda said. “We said, ‘We’re five people.’ He said, ‘You are beasts, or you must be crazy.’ I said, ‘The second one.’”
While four of the runners have done the relay races the past four years, Illa is a newcomer to the quintet. He had formed a different team last year for the Buck Fifth virtual run.
At 31, Illa is the youngest of the group.
“I was itching to do a long relay race, and finding a team, finding like-minded people, I think that is hard,” Illa said. “I took a day just to talk to my wife, and she said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ to them, and within no time, we were just running.”
The group also is planning to do another 150-mile race in Michigan. They are thankful to Events Logbook for sponsoring their t-shirts for the Buck Fifty and are looking for sponsors to cover registration and transportation for future events.
Panda, Badve and Deshpande run together most Saturdays. Kumar and Illa joined them couple times while training for the Buck Fifty.
The Columbus Running Buddies finished the 2018 race in 28 hours, and last year’s virtual time was around 27 hours. This year, they did the Buck Fifth in about 26 hours.
“Our estimation was 24 hours this time,” Panda said. “We should have been able to hit, but in the night time, there were a few short legs which we could not plan properly, and also, the trails, there are a few legs that changed this time, so we had to manage those trails. They were very, very tall. I have not see that high trails here in Columbus, so that took us a little off of our time.”
But they didn’t mind.
“We really like it because there are a lot of uphills, downhills and the arrangement is really very nice,” Kumar said. “Since we went three years back, we saw a lot of improvement. It’s a really nice race, and we’re planning to do it in the future.”
hree years ago, a group of five Cummins employees took to the streets of Chillicothe, Ohio, and surrounding country roads and trails of Ross County to try to decrease teenage drug use in that area.
After doing a 200-mile relay race from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2019, to raise money to combat homelessness, the Columbus Running Buddies did the Ohio-based “Buck Fifty” again last year. That time, however, they did it virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, Ganesh Badve, Shripad Deshpande, Hareen Illa, Jugander Kumar and Rajib Panda were back in Chillicothe for the 150-mile race.
“We really like the cause,” Kumar said. “For someone, a buck-50 may be one dollar, 50 cents. But for us, it’s 150 miles, and that requires a lot of dedication, a lot of energy, a lot of hard work and those kind of things. We like difficult challenges.”
The cause is the hope for drug-free teenagers. The back of the finishers’ medals reads, “Inspiring the community through running with a mission to keep kids off of drugs.”
“They have taken 2,000 kids who are drug users, and they are attending their lives,” Panda said. “They’re making sure that they get out of drugs, get to a good school and they’re taking care of all the expenses and everything that the kids would need to go further in their life.”
About 400 people from the Chillicothe area, including roughly 100 teachers, volunteered for the event, which began the evening of April 16 and continued through the night until the following evening.
“They managed it very well,” Deshpande said. “The arrangements were superb. The kept all the precautions in mind that we were to follow for COVID, the social distancing and everything. I was really impressed with that.”
The five runners took turns running three-to-seven-mile legs. One of the five who wasn’t running would drive the van.
“One big difference from previous races, one lesson that we learned not to run four legs at one stretch,” Badve said. “That is taxing. This time, we limited it to one leg at a time, and that helped a lot. We were so fresh even after the race.”
That was despite being only a five-person team. All but seven of the 75 participating teams had 10 runners.
“When we were running in the night, we were passing one guy, and we just started conversing,” Panda said. “We said, ‘We’re five people.’ He said, ‘You are beasts, or you must be crazy.’ I said, ‘The second one.’”
While four of the runners have done the relay races the past four years, Illa is a newcomer to the quintet. He had formed a different team last year for the Buck Fifth virtual run.
At 31, Illa is the youngest of the group.
“I was itching to do a long relay race, and finding a team, finding like-minded people, I think that is hard,” Illa said. “I took a day just to talk to my wife, and she said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ to them, and within no time, we were just running.”
The group also is planning to do another 150-mile race in Michigan. They are thankful to Events Logbook for sponsoring their t-shirts for the Buck Fifty and are looking for sponsors to cover registration and transportation for future events.
Panda, Badve and Deshpande run together most Saturdays. Kumar and Illa joined them couple times while training for the Buck Fifty.
The Columbus Running Buddies finished the 2018 race in 28 hours, and last year’s virtual time was around 27 hours. This year, they did the Buck Fifth in about 26 hours.
“Our estimation was 24 hours this time,” Panda said. “We should have been able to hit, but in the night time, there were a few short legs which we could not plan properly, and also, the trails, there are a few legs that changed this time, so we had to manage those trails. They were very, very tall. I have not see that high trails here in Columbus, so that took us a little off of our time.”
But they didn’t mind.
“We really like it because there are a lot of uphills, downhills and the arrangement is really very nice,” Kumar said. “Since we went three years back, we saw a lot of improvement. It’s a really nice race, and we’re planning to do it in the future.”
