This October, Sam Giles, Assistant Manager, took on the Royal Parks Half Marathon around London for KidsOut.
The route this year meandered around the sights of London for the first 11km, passing by Westminster, Number 10 and Trafalgar Square before heading up The Mall past Buckingham Palace for the second half which winded through Hyde Park.
Despite clear skies making for a brisk morning, the sun stayed out throughout making temperatures fairly ideal for the event.
In total there were around 16,000 participants, which was fantastic to see when you consider the London Marathon (one of the most renowned road races globally) fields 42,000 runners. With so many runners, there was naturally a large draw for spectators, with cheering along the entire route as well as uplifting drumming bands on several corners.
KidsOut seem to have mastered the manufacture of the world’s brightest clothing too and with such a bright top bearing Sam’s name in large capital letters, he naturally had a huge number of strangers cheering him throughout. Sam described this as “disorientating and motivating in equal measure, but overall it definitely helped me continue plodding along! In between these random cheers was my other half Kate who had managed to scheme a plan whereby it was possible to dive between differing viewing spots half a dozen times throughout the race and snap some great photos shown alongside this piece!”
With this motivation, Sam managed to complete the run in 1hr 30mins.
Sam adds: “Despite the run being tough, it was an absolute pleasure being able to undertake this event on behalf of KidsOut and in doing so raise £495 for such an incredible charity. A further thank you should be extended to Kathy and her team at KidsOut for facilitating this run, without which would not have been possible. Similarly, I’d like to thank Elliott at Claritas for assisting with the organisation of this fundraiser.”
The fundraising page is still open for anyone who would still like to donate to such a great cause. The link for this can be found here –https://kidsoutuk.enthuse.com/pf/sam-giles-71e5d
