When Raj Gilda moved from India to New York in 2000, the last thing on his mind was running a marathon. That all changed in 2003, when Gilda needed a way to help Lend-A-Hand India—a non-profit charity that he, his wife, and a few friends created to help high-school kids in rural India learn marketable job skills—meet its $12,000 first-year budget.

Inspired by a co-worker who had run the ING New York City Marathon to raise funds for charity, Gilda, a vice president with Citigroup, searched “marathon training program” on Google. “There was a program that came up that was 19 weeks,” he says. “I was running two miles at the time, and the program said I needed to be running three miles to begin. I said, ‘I can go another mile.’” Gilda went that extra mile and then some, completing the Paris Marathon in April and raising more than $5,000 for Lend-A-Hand.

Gilda, now 43, finished his first ING New York City Marathon that November and—aside from 2004—has run it every year since, setting a PR of 5:07 in 2005. Since ’03, Lend-A-Hand has grown to a team of 60 people who train together, raise funds, and compete in marathons across the globe, from New York to London to Mumbai. Last year, Lend-A-Hand’s Run for a Dream program became an official charity of the ING New York City Marathon, a development Gilda calls “the best thing that has happened to us.”

What started as a modest operation helping 500 students in three schools now reaches more than 10,000 students in 55 schools and has raised $250,000 to date. “The villages in rural India are very poor, and there’s a big gap between what students learn in school and the practical skills they need to find a job,” Gilda says. “So we recruit local plumbers, carpenters, and electricians from the community and train them to be teachers. One day a week, they show the boys and girls how to make tables, wire homes for electricity, and other vocational talents. We give kids tools they need to succeed in the job market.”

Gilda would like to break five hours when he runs his seventh ING New York City Marathon this fall, but he won’t be disappointed if he falls short: “We’re running for fun. If you run 4:30 instead of 4:15, who cares? You crossed the finish line—be happy!”