Garia: A foggy and cold morning was no deterrent for those participating in a run in Garia as they crossed the starting line on Sunday.

A number of participants in the 6 Mile Road Race, in association with The Telegraph, in its seventh year, made their running debut, along with others who had just taken up the sport and some professional athletes.

Garia's Mitali Sangha club organised the run, that is actually for six kilometres and not six miles.

Once the run was flagged off, the runners meandered through Raja Subodh Chandra Mullick Road, touched the Bypass at Patuli and the Dhalai bridge before getting on to Garia Station Road and reaching the finish line near the club.

Among the earliest to arrive at the venue were friends for 25 years Subrata Das from Kasba and Mainak Majumdar from Jadavpur.

Majumdar, a businessman, had run in the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K in the 10K category last month and liked the experience so much that he decided not only to run this race but also roped in Das.

"Mainak was so enthusiastic and so persuasive that I decided to give it a try," Das, who works with a telecom company, said.

Some of the seasoned runners, however, complained there was no drinking water facility at any point on the route though it is staple for any run.

Newcomers like Das and Majumdar hung on to their woollens and many to their monkey caps and mufflers till the run was flagged off at 6.30am.

Seasoned runners like Madhu Biswas, 25, from Baruipur, who won the run, had stripped down to vests and shorts well in advance doing stretches to loosen their muscles.

Biswas, who completed the distance in 20 minutes, is a state-level runner.

For Sajid Laskar, 18, a student of Dinabandhu Andrews College, this was the third run after TSK 25K and the Safe Drive Save Life Marathon, organised by Calcutta police.

"I have started timing my runs. The 10K is the longest I have run so far," he said.

Some young participants from Midnapore and Bankura districts stayed overnight at the Mitali Sangha club.

The only woman participant, Ankita Purkait, 13, came from Joynagar with her mother Rupali. "I had to leave home at 4.30am to catch a train to reach here. But it's all worth it," the girl who has represented Bengal in the junior nationals said.

This was her first road run, though.

We are happy so many people turned up despite the cold," Mahadeb Chakraborty, joint secretary of the club, said.

The culb organises the run every year to spread the message of friendship.