The running season will take off from City Centre in Salt Lake on November 24 with the Airtel Run for Education partnered with The Telegraph.
The sixth edition of the run will not only a have timed 5km race to encourage first-timers, but will also witness the participation of around 100 ploggers who will pick up trash while running down the route, the organisers said.
The ploggers — people who pick up rubbish while jogging — will be split into groups, and will run in all categories of the race, they said.
This year finisher T-shirts, with name of the runner and his/her timing emblazoned on the back, will be available for a fee. The organisers decided to introduce finisher T-shirts after several runners wanted to take home a memento other than medals and certificates.
The 21km half-marathon will be a single-loop race from the City Centre to the Kolkata Gate in New Town and back.
“The route will be scenic and it will not get monotonous as participants have to do it in a single loop,” Atul Gupta, race director, Round Table India, one of the organisers, said.
This year, the organisers expect more than 8,000 runners across all age groups. Vineet Patwari, CEO of Kredent Money, one of the sponsors, said the race had one of the most scenic routes among all the marathons organised here.
“Every year this event breaks records in terms of participant footfall and this year, too, we expect to break last year’s record,” Siddharth Sharma, CEO, Calcutta and Bengal, Bharti Airtel, said.
“This event is quite close to us as it helps to educate underprivileged children and help them in other ways,” he said.
Funds from the last five editions have been used to build classrooms at Sarada Sishu Mandir in Tanterberia, Howrah, Katadanga Kendra Vidyalaya, Champadani Ram Dulari Hindi School in Champadani, Kanchidiha Saraswati Shishu Mandir in Krishnanagar and Bright Future Nursery School in Kakdwip, South 24 Parganas among others. This year, too Round Table India wants to build classrooms at a school that has already been identified .
[“source=telegraphindia”]
