At the crack of dawn on Sunday, Red Road will wake up to thousands of happy feet ready to run in the IDBI Federal Life Insurance Kolkata Marathon 2016, partnered by The Telegraph. As many as 15,000 runners have registered for the 42km run, which will also serve as the qualifier for the Rio Olympics. Apart from elite runners, the ninth edition of the event has drawn people who have started running late. Metro highlights some such figures

Apurba Das

The 52-year-old employee of Central Railway was down with a host of disorders such as diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol just nine years ago. The man from Nadia now settled in Mumbai became depressed and turned suicidal. 
But all that changed when his doctor asked him to walk. Soon Das started jogging and then running laps around the Parel Central Railway ground in Mumbai. 

“I started running in August 2009. In March I ran 100km in a two-day ‘greenathon’. I have run in many cities since. All my health troubles are gone. Today, I don’t have to take any medicine,” he laughed.

For Das, who has a 550-km run from Ahmedabad to Mumbai and a longer run from Delhi to Mumbai under his belt, the racing career will come a full circle on Sunday because he has never run a road race in his home state. 

Sunil and Sangeetha Shetty

The couple’s romance with road races started in 2003 when Sunil, then 40, was advised to run to shed the extra pounds he had put on. 

“I am five-foot-seven and was 88kg in 2003. When I started running, my wife started running, too, to accompany me. We completed the 13th anniversary of our running together a couple of days ago,” said Sunil, who is self-employed. They are the first couple from India to run 100km together in 2013 and later to run for 24 hours.

Kavin Kondabathani

The 35-year-old Mumbaikar has given up a corporate job and turned into a full-time running coach and motivational speaker on running. Kavin also runs road races across the country and even abroad. At Turin, Italy, he won two bronze medals in a dualthon (running and cycling) and a half-marathon in 2013.

Kavin was a manager at a corporate house in Mumbai in 2009 when the company registered its employees for a half-marathon. The employees needed to run 6km but Kavin ran the entire 21.097km with minimal training.

Since then, he has run in over 50 half-marathons, 14 marathons and three ultra-marathons. 

“The running scenario in India is changing. With a good number of serious runners and running groups coming up, a good trainer can make a living out of imparting running lessons,” he said.

What: IDBI Federal Life Insurance Kolkata Marathon 2016, partnered by The Telegraph
Where: The race starts and finishes on Red Road
When: 5.30am onwards 
Get set, go! Put on your running shoes, plug in your earphones and hit the Red Road. Running with you 
will be hundreds in various categories — full marathon (42.195km), half-marathon (21.097km), 
corporate and open run (10km) and fun run (5km).
Registrations open from 10am to 4pm on Saturday at Olpadvala Memorial Hall (52 Chowringhee Road, Calcutta 71, besides Bishop’s House)