Race, done; cakes, done; sweets, next year.

The Tata Steel World 25K Kolkata, partnered by The Telegraph, had 20,537 registrations, the highest ever. Of them, 6,978 were from outside Bengal, a testament to the run’s popularity.

Many runners from other states stayed back to indulge in some of Calcutta’s traditional winter favourites.

Zeba Khan, who works at a Delhi-based export house, did the 25K. She toured the city after the run, eating at Peter Cat, shopping at New Market and buying cakes and pastries from Nahoum.

“I had to tick these boxes,” she said.

She missed out on nolen gur-er sandesh, for which she said she would come back.

Penav Mota, 28, a visually impaired runner who took part in the 25K, came from Mumbai.

He finished 25km in 2:59:26. “It was perfect. I had set myself a target of finishing in under three hours,” said Mota.

“The course was excellent. Barring the last leg, there was hardly any repetition,” said Mota, a practising advocate who has done full marathons (42km) in Mumbai and Pune and some 17 half-marathons in various cities. Like any other visually impaired runner, Mota runs with a guide.

He stayed at a hotel in Esplanade and toured the Indian Museum, Indian Coffee House and New Market during his stay in the city.

“Calcutta in winter is amazing,” said Mota, who has been to the city before.

A schoolteacher from Varanasi, Dipankar Banerjee, ran the 25K and his daughter, Vishnupriya, a Class XII student, ran in the 10K segment.

The two spent a couple of days in the city, buying winter clothes, caps and shoes. They stayed at a hotel near Mukundapur. When the race started in 2014, the running culture was yet to pick up in Calcutta. Now, there are many running groups in and around the city, often with links to similar groups in other cities.

Organisers said the ninth edition of the race reinforced its position as one of the top running spectacles in the country.

Kailash Gupta, 81, came from Jaipur to run in the Open 10K segment. He finished the run in a little over two hours.

Gupta would run half-marathons (21km) till recently and shifted to 10km three years ago. He reached Calcutta on Friday and left on Monday.

“The run was very well managed. I have run half-marathons in Delhi and Mumbai. The arrangement in Calcutta is up there with the best,” said Gupta, who spent a few years in Calcutta when he worked at the Brabourne Road headquarters of a PSU bank.

Gupta had put up at Polo Floatel on the Hooghly off Strand Road. “The view was majestic,” said Gupta.