Ravi Kandikonda has gone to great lengths to help underprivileged children in his homeland of India.

Kandikonda is among 14 area Indians representing Team Asha's Strides of Hope at Sunday's Wellstone's Dallas White Rock Marathon.

The group spent six months training with Run On, a local running store chain. Team members are raising $100 for every mile they run Sunday for the nonprofit group Asha for Education.

Kandikonda said asha means hope in many Indian languages. Asha's 66 chapters across the United States, Canada, Europe and India give money to poverty-stricken families in rural India for books, uniforms and tuition. The hope is that education will reduce the prevalence of prostitution and child labor camps.

"The main reason people join Strides of Hope is the cause," said Kandikonda, 31. "They want to spread awareness of the work that we support in India. I don't think the simple reason for becoming fit would make them join."

Kandikonda, a Plano resident, said the idea of distance running was new to his group.

"You'll see people run along the beach or at the park in India," Kandikonda said. "They'll run two or three miles for recreation, for the endorphin rush. But marathoning is something not very common."

Yet Strides of Hope is growing. Fourteen of the 45 U.S. chapters of Asha have adopted the program since its inception seven years ago in the Silicon Valley. Kandikonda, the local chapter coordinator, liked the idea of running for a cause but had no idea what was involved. He decided to run a half marathon and then try to recruit others. He trained and finished the half marathon at last year's Rock. He made novice mistakes but achieved his goal, completing 13.1 miles in less than three hours.

His success and enthusiasm sparked interest. Six Asha members drove to Austin for the Motorola Marathon in February to cheer and learn more. Then several began training for a spring 5K.

Kandikonda credits Goutham Kondapalli with motivating and recruiting team members. Kondapalli, a marathoner, told them they would probably get double the donations by explaining to friends, family and co-workers that they were novice runners training for a marathon to benefit a special cause, Kandikonda said.

Though Kondapalli had to return to India, he established a core group. Then Deepa Varadarajan, one of the half marathoners, coordinated the group's training through Run On.

Getting fit has been a bonus for the six full marathoners and the 10 half marathoners. Two trained and planned to run Dallas but didn't register in time. No one in the group has completed a full marathon. Only Kandikonda and Ramesh Venugopal had finished a half marathon when the group started training last summer.

They all had their doubts.

"I've seen the transformation from initial self-doubting to eventual overcoming of the doubt and getting confidence," Kandikonda said.

On Sunday, Kandikonda said he's sure the group won't repeat the novice mistakes he made a year ago. He's excited that his teammates will have an opportunity to experience the emotions he felt, beginning with the prerace crowds and the jets flying overhead just before the race started.

He knows they'll get a charge when total strangers cheer them by name along the course because, as first-time participants, their names will be on their race bibs.

He also remembers approaching the finish line.

"I don't know what came over me," he said, reliving the moment excitedly. "I just sprinted."

dfetterman@dfwrunning.com

Venus Bhasin

Vishal Bhasin

Sumit Chopra

Ramyanshu Datta

Ravi Kandikonda

Goutham Kondapalli*

Viswanath Puttagunta

Ramesh Venugopal

Sumit Bagri*

Dipanjana Bhattacharya

Mugdha Gadkari

Purnima Krishnan

Sameer Marfatia

Vaidehi Natu

Arathi Rao

Kavitha Srinivasan

Deepa Varadarajan

Yash Vyavaharkar

*Failed to register before White Rock registration cutoff