‘All men’ relay marathon covers Kolkata to Gangtok in 58 hours

Gangtok: Eleven runners from Sikkim, Darjeeling hills and Kolkata completed a journey of 685 kilometres relay race from Kolkata to Gangtok on Saturday, after reaching Reshithang Khel Gaon ground here.

The run started from Kolkata on September 16.

The aim of the group of ‘all men runners’ was to reach Gangtok in 60 hours; they completed the race with 2 hours to spare. Sikkim University Professor Sudarshan Tamang, Colonel Bhupendra Hang Subba and many others were part of the run.

The group claims the decision to run was initially impromptu, with the idea that “if one can run from Kolkata to Gangtok”.

Sudershan Tamang shares, “The decision initially was to run solo; later it cultivated as a group, and finally we decided that a relay race for such a long journey in such a small time would be the ideal solution. But we lay out an advisory that don’t try to imitate the run in haste, make sure you plan it.”

Luv Barman, another runner from Kolkata, shared, “So we divided the group in such that those who run more frequently in plains would cover the plain areas first. While our counterparts from the hills would be better suited to run the hilly terrains. That is how we divided the run. At any given moment in the past 58 hours, there was at least one runner running, even late night or the wee hours.”

Colonel Bhupendra Hang Subba said, “So we divided the run to be an exact 60-odd kilometres for each runner. But then some of us run a bit more while some of us have run a bit less. It is a contribution from all. This was an attempt at inspiring the younger generation of runners, while also raising awareness on fitness.”

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