Meadows Half Marathon
Enjoy Running For a Cause
The Meadows Half Marathon is an annual running event that involves a Half Marathon and a 5 km fun run. Meadows Half is faithfully a non-profit event and it it great to see the combination of running and doing the good cause as in this example.
Its beneficiaries include local and national charities, one of which is the Waverley Care and the Sick Kids Friends Foundation.
The event is organized by students of the University of Edinburgh, under the supervision of the Edinburgh Students Charity Appeal or ESCA, a Scottish charity that provides assistance to charitable events held by students.
The running event claimed its name because it is held in The Meadows, located in beautiful South Edinburgh, in March of every year. Edinburgh has several charitable events, but the Meadows Half Marathon is one of its largest and most popular fundraising events.
How the Meadows Half Marathon Started
The popular running event across all of Scotland went on its first run on 2007. Even on its first ever run, the half marathon event already raised 10,000 Pounds, which is more than just an impressive amount considering that the event was a new one and was wholly organized by students.
Now, a little over a year older, the event has indeed come a long way.
This is clearly evident in the high-technological digital timing used in the event. The Meadows Half Marathon now uses a breakthrough chip, which all the event runners can get for free.The digital timing chips are provided by Edinburgh Racing.
These chips are helpful simply by giving runners the chance to digitally time their running pace. With the help of the chips, you can simply determine your time when running - a fun addition added to the whole experience.
Who Can Join the Meadows Half Marathon
The Meadows Half Marathon is open to any kind of runner, regardless of your running level. As previously mentioned, half marathons are not strenuous but are still challenging enough.
Because of its flexibility, a wide range of runners join such events, which is partly the secret behind the success of the Meadows running event.
Advanced and experienced runners will enjoy the brief respite from their rough and hard runs while running a smoother road for a cause, while beginners can use a charitable way of practicing for the next challenges that they wish to face someday.
However, for perfectly practical reasons of course, to enter you should always be physically well and energetic ;)
But to make the event more enjoyable for the advanced runners, there are also prizes given away to runners with the best running times. So what you are seeing here is a race with a good foundation within the charity cause - but also a nice oppurtinity for the more competative as well.
There are also great motivational add-ons to the event such as dress competitions, prizes for everyone, and a lot more. And can you expect an event run by students to be without music and entertainment?
All runners will surely have a lot of fun while helping the organization behind the event raise money for a great mission.
How to Join the Meadows Half Marathon
If interested in joining the next Meadows Half Marathon, you can register individually or you can also register as a team. Individual registrations can be done online at the Meadows Marathon website, which is found here.
Registration as a team should still be done individually, but a list of the team members should be e-mailed to the organization. The relevance of teams is that there are also prizes given away to teams with the best times.
Good luck with planning your half marathon training and your next half marathon race! |