An all-women team will be the guiding force for amateur runners in the city’s premier road race this year.
The 10K segment in the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K, partnered by The Telegraph, will have a team of 13 women pacers.
A pacer, or a pace-setter, is usually a race veteran. A pacer is a committed runner who sets a steady pace throughout the course and leads a group of runners from the start to the finish at the predetermined time.
In running parlance, a group following a pacesetter is called a bus. The pacer must finish just a few minutes before the promised time. So, if you have joined the sub-2:30 bus, the pace-setter will look to lead you through the finish line somewhere between 2:25 and 2:29 hours.
Sunmbul Rahman, 49, who took part in the Chicago Marathon this year and is gearing up for the Boston and New York marathons next year, will be a pacer on December 18.
Her aim is to lead her group to a 10km finish in 55 minutes. Rahman boasts of podium finishes in several races before. She is also a past winner of the Jaisalmer Border run, a gruelling 50km race.
“Running has trained me for life. I lost my husband at the age of 32. I had to raise two children. I would not have been able to without running,” said Rahman, who owns a restaurant.
She is a mother of two daughters, an entrepreneur and a mountaineer.
By 2025, Rahman aspires to be a six-star finisher — someone who has completed all six major marathons: London, New York, Boston, Chicago, Berlin and Tokyo.
Many of the pacers took to running rather late in their lives but cannot think of a life without running shoes now.
The 10km category is the second longest after the full 25km stretch in the TSK run and the stepping stone into serious running for many.
In the past, several participants graduated to the 10K segment after taking part in the 4.2km Ananda Run of TSK. The 10K race in the 2019 edition — the last time it was held — had 5,695 participants, much more than the 5K Ananda Run that saw 4,531 participants, a testament to the city’s growing love for serious running.
Roshni Guhathakurta, a computer engineer and mother of a six-year-old daughter, is also one of the pacers.
Born with clubfoot — a range of foot abnormalities usually present at birth, in which the baby’s foot is twisted out of shape or position — she had to undergo major surgeries to rectify the condition.
Today, she runs 30km non-stop with ease. She has run many 10km races and half-marathons. She is also trained in Taekwondo and Kathak. Like many others, she started running to lose weight and then got hooked. Her target on December 18: 10km in 85 minutes.
“I want to create a relaxed atmosphere for the runners following me. Leading them through Kolkata’s historic landmarks will be a memorable experience. At the end of the day, I want to stoke an interest in running among the people,” she said.
In TSK, the 25K category will have a dozen pacers, all from the army. Registrations for all categories — 25K, open 10K, Ananda Run (4.2 km), Senior Citizens’ Run (2.3 km), and Champions with Disability (2.3 km) — will remain open till December 9, 11.59pm, or till running places are filled, whichever is earlier, at tatasteelkolkata25k.procam. in, said organisers.