Record-breaking Bristol Half Marathon went to plan and raised £100k
The Bristol Half Marathon ran smoothly, raised more than £100,000 and saw the fastest finishing time in 10 years.
That is the message coming from race organisers and its official charities, who said yesterday's event was a great success.
-
Winner Dominic Ondoro completed the race in 1.02.51
The Sunday race saw 10,000 people pound the streets of Bristol, coming full circle in the Harbourside after a 13 mile run along the Portway, Cumberland Road and the old city.
Organisers say that despite seeing a number of runners drop out – 14,000 had originally been expected – the event was a great success.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Sunday, June 30 2013
“It was brilliant,” said RunBristol director Georgette Van Hoof.
“The winner, Dominic Ondoro, completed the race in 1.02.51, the fastest time for 10 years, so that was a pretty good record from our point of view.
“And we had runners coming from all over Europe. I was very, very pleased with it.”
This year’s race attracted 2,000 more entrants than last, Ms Van Hoof added. “We’re putting that down to the Olympics, although there’s no way to prove that”.
Meanwhile the three official charities of the Bristol Half Marathon - CLIC Sargent, Children's Hospice South West and COCO (Comrades of Children Overseas) – said they expected to have raised thousands of pounds.
CLIC Sargent said the charity was on track to hit its target of £40,000, while Children's Hospice South West (CHSW) hoped to have raised £60,000.
Karen Edgington, CHSW Head of Fundraising, said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to all the amazing runners who took on the challenge of the Bristol Half Marathon for us.
“CHSW is almost entirely voluntary funded and running events are a crucial way for us to raise much needed funds.
“We had almost 700 runners and once all sponsorship has been collected we hope to have raised £60,000.”
Turning to the events of the day, RunBristol director Georgette Van Hoof said: “It would have been lovely if we had sunshine but fewer people needed to be treated [medically] because of the coolness. It was the ideal running condition for those taking part.”
Road closures also ran more smoothly than in years previous, Ms Van Hoof explained. “Our course has been developed over the years to ensure it involves the most simple road closures. It’s a massive operation to keep traffic moving, with people in traffic control rooms looking at the junctions.
“We did have some complaints and some people were inconvenienced, but the majority of people were very happy because people are aware of the closures and they make other arrangements.
“We have gone from a situation where the race was unknown to everyone knowing it’s happening and changing their plans accordingly.”
The roads were also reopened ahead of schedule, Ms Van Hoof added: “Anchor Road was due to be reopened by 5pm, but we did it by 4.05pm”.
Comments
by spencer2
Monday, October 01 2012, 10:39PM
“for us who were starting in the second wave, the atmosphere was non existant compared to other years.
The "Great North/South runs" can manage mass starts, so why not Bristol
And also we had to run past many runners who had stopped/slowed within the first mile, even though we had put estimated finishing times of 1.50 on our applications.
But a big thanks to all the volunteers who made it a great day”