Come Sunday morning, the streets of Salt Lake will be ruled not by cars and autorickshaws but by around 5,000 runners. Organised by the Tata Consultancy Services, the TCS Fit4life Corporate Challenge, in association with t2, will have two categories. While the corporate challenge will be an 8km run, the campus challenge will be a 5km race.
Who can participate?
Teams from any company can sign up for the Corporate Challenge. At least four people are needed to register as a team while there is no cap on the maximum number of participants. All those who have registered will get a starter's kit. The kit will have a bib number to identify the runner, a water bottle and a sling bag. More than 2,000 employees of various organisations have already signed up for the event.
Students taking part in the Campus Challenge will get T-shirts at the starting point.
New feature
TCS has been organising road races since last year for its workforce and employees of other companies.
This year, the organisers have decided to include students, too, and have tapped into colleges from where they recruit. Around 2,500 students from 12 colleges are likely to participate in the 5km run.
The route
The 8km Corporate Challenge will start from Salt Lake Stadium's gate No. 3 near The Stadel. Runners will turn right from the gate and go through Broadway till Netaji's statue. From there, they will turn left and head for the Karunamoyee bus stop where they will make a U-turn and retrace their steps to the stadium's gate No. 3 keeping AMRI Hospitals on the left. For students, the starting point is same, gate No. 3. Once they reach the Netaji statue, they will make a U-turn and head back to the stadium's gate.
Registration
Companies can register their teams by logging on to https://fit4life.tcs.com. Everyone running the Corporate Challenge will have to pay a registration fee of Rs 275. Payment can be done through demand draft or online funds transfer. The details are available on the website. Students can log on to https://nextstep.tcs.com and register for free. All registrations close on Friday.
Timings
The Campus Challenge will start at 6.30am and the Corporate Challenge at 7am.
Run to help
The Tata Medical Center and the All Bengal Women's Charity, an NGO for women, will get the proceeds from the event.
Prizes
The first prize for the Corporate Challenge is Rs 50,000 for both men and women. The second and third prizes are Rs 25,000 and Rs 15,000. Since the prize money will be donated to charity, winners will get vouchers from Hyatt, Swissotel and Novotel. The winner and the first runner-up in the Campus Challenge will get bicycles and the second runner-up will get a watch.
There is a special prize for the corporate team with the maximum number of women runners.