Otta(i) Dhaanam

I've tried to understand this funda, but somehow have never been able to figure it out. Seriously, what's this about charity runs/walks? I am happy to be seeing some form of charity/service to society/the underprivileged, etc. going on but I would be happier to see it with some sane reason, or at least, to be able to understand and appreciate the functioning of the system.
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Q. Running - Why do people run?
A. I started off by asking myself this question. Possible answers are that the person is a fitness freak who wants to keep himself/herself in good shape. Else, the person is an athlete who runs for a living. Then, possibly, people run for fun...just that running gives them a sense of liberation. Ok, this last set is probably quite less compared to the other two but let's just say they also contribute to running.
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Seri appo, when did this running thing get connected to charity? I figure out people somehow started gathering in groups for a charitable cause, to discuss about it or something, then some wise soul says "let's start running" and his/her company agrees to sponsor the group "run" because it gives them some kind of publicity (which, again, results in an indirect benefit for the company anyway :P). So this part is ok - corporates sponsoring runs primarily because they get some good coverage.
Somewhere, some bloke introduced this brilliant idea of individually contributing to someone's run. I also have squeezed my brain and eked out a possible reason - individuals contributing money to someone else's run acts as a motivation for the runner to run more and bring more money (for the charitable cause, obviously). But here's the thing - isn't this a kind of recursive loop which continues because of the last recursion? Nobody knows why the recursion started in the first place (for the Comp.Scientifically challenged - I give X money encouraging him/her to run for the good cause. X runs. Someone else gives money because X ran and is thinking of running again. X runs again. Some other someone else gives money to X. And it goes on...).
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IMHO, if you want to run (for whatever reason), RUN, for God's sake. And if you want to donate money for charity, DONATE. I should think a person who donates money for charity via a contribution to someone's run would anyway donate money to charity. Some XYZ running acts as a means for this person to donate, it isn't the stimulant or motivating factor for a person who was otherwise not going to donate any money, to donate money.
But mixing the two doesn't make sense. I mean it, really. Or at least, I can't figure it out.
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• Unakku thala valicha naan mazhaila shoes'kku badhila seruppu pottundu enna prayojanam?
• Obama'kku phone adicha naan saappadu saapttuttu sound'a yeppam vidaama irukkardhula enna sambandham?
  

Reminds me of this hilarious scene from Jillunu Oru Kadhal. :D
Yes, before you say it, I've also thought about Chaos Theory/Butterfly Effect-related reasons. But this explanation will not hold water because the theory holds good only for random events causing random effects...Like -

• Unakku thala valiyoda Ranganathan Street'la you walking. Me also walking there for Karumbu Juice kudiching plus Thaayar Dairy Vadaam stocking. Suddenly rain coming. All of us running for shelter into Saravana "2-Rupee Samsa" Stores. Appo I accidentally stamp on your foot. You already in head-ache. Now rain. Plus me stamping on your foot. If shoes, your vali unbearable and you slap me. If slippers, I can just slip away because water everywhere and you didn't notice my kaal-midhithal.
• I am holidaying in Hawaii and walking outside Obama's patti's house. Ange after a semma saappadu (Ok, imagination obviously) I loudly burp. Distracted by my burp, a taxi driver suddenly halts car. Crash. Accident. Secret Service agent from inside patti's house comes outside and takes me in for questioning seeing me at the site. Unearths my Chicago connection. I also belong to Shah Rukh Khan-land. I wear Veebudhi most of time => suicide-mission Anthrax-spreader possibility. Emergency. Call White House.
  

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You see? Ivlo kashta pattu I need to bring a connection to associate Running and Charity. Onnume Puriyaliye...Ada Pongappa.