On Sunday, May 3rd over 10,000 runners gathered at
Hackney Marshes for the beginning of the 2017 Hackney Half. By 8am the atmosphere in the race village had
started to build, with music, warm ups and even a live interview with Sir
Richard Branson, who got the whole event under way by firing
the starting confetti gun!
With perfect running conditions and the sun breaking through
the clouds, the local Hackney residents were out in force and high spirits, cheering
the runners through the 13.1 mile course. The ReachOut team joined the crowds at mile 3.5 where we set up a cheer point and enthusiastically cheered
our runners through the opening stages!
We were fortunate to have over 20 runners in this years’
event who have raised well over £10,000 for ReachOut! Our runners’ ranged from
university students and corporate mentors to former mentees, and there were
some pretty impressive performances with the fastest finishing in 1:33 and all
of them finishing in less than 2:30!
A huge shout out goes to the team from our corporate partner Macquarie Group, led by James Lovelace who is our in-house champion and recruited 4 extra runners to take part with him. Not only that, he also ran the Hackney Half in a brilliant Gnome costume. Well done to Team Macquarie, who after matched funding, have raised well over £5,000!!
We love days like these, because it gives us a chance to show our appreciation for the people who support ReachOut. Whether it is a university student mentor or a supporter who found us through a Google search – it was great to meet our wide range of supporters. And what better place to hang out with them than the Hackney Half Race Village which had music, food stands, free massages and chill out areas on offer to runners, friends and family!
Thank you so much to all of our runners who worked so hard training and fundraising. Next year, we are looking to double the number of young people we work with, and your hard work will help us towards this goal.
Bring on the 2018 Hackney Half!
If you’re interested in running for ReachOut in the 2017 Royal Parks, you can book your place here today: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/royal-parks-half-2017-tickets-32856283027?aff=es2
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