The event itself is a joint venture between the British Heart Foundation and St Albans Council in partnership with Leisure Connection. This year it took place on glorious Sunday, June 14th and it was an amazing success with more than 4,500 runners entering.
One of the organisers told me “It is such a big community event and it’s about encouraging children to be active. It is nice to see a child as young as 3 months old and a seventy-year-old take part on the same day. Everyone is raising money for the British Heart Foundation.”
Robert Cox, event organiser, said that there were an unprecedented number of people registering on the day. ‘People turned up in droves to help save lives. I would like to thank everyone involved.’
One of the children said that she loved the spirit of the other children and that it didn’t matter when you finished the race. Another child was lucky enough to meet her favourite teacher on the Fun Run and said ‘I loved the Fun Run because my teacher ran too!’
Ss Alban & Stephen Infant and Junior School(s) proudly won the Schools Challenge Shield. They had the highest number of entrants for the second time in a row, with over 224 taking part.
The BHF is the nation’s heart charity. As they informed me this week; “It is dedicated to saving lives through pioneering research, caring for heart patients and their families, campaigning for change and providing vital information to help people care for their own health.” They spend over £100 in every minute of every day on heart research! So every penny donated by each entrant was indeed gone to a worthy cause! Well done, St Albans.