On the 6th October, the Royal Borough of Kingston held their yearly Autumn half marathon with up to 1,200 participants and many more onlookers cheering the runners on. Those taking part in this 13.1mile run arrived prior the start at 8:30 to prepare themselves for their upcoming run through historic scenes of the Royal Borough of Kingston. The marathon began in Kingston’s ancient marketplace and made its way through the town centre before leading the runners down the river, past the iconic Hampton Court Palace and returning to the marketplace.
The Royal Borough of Kingston Half Marathon will be raising money for their associated charities including: Kingston Hospital Charity, to improve the level of care across all of its services and their partner charities such as the River Thames Boat Project, which offers cruises for the elderly, people with disabilities and primary school education days, and Barnfield Riding for the Disabled Association, founded in 1987 in aim to help give best possible experiences to disabled riders.
Runners were also able to run for their own charities and organisations. This included one runner interviewed, Kelly Hinchliffe, who was running to raise money for The National Brain Appeal in memory of her friend, who died from a brain tumour, whose birthday it was on the 6th. Hinchliffe talked to me about her previous experiences in half marathon saying she ran in one about 15 years ago and “[she’s] going to try and beat [her] time from 15 years ago (about 2 hours 17). [She’s] going to try and go for the 2 hours 10 mark today” in order to “set [herself] a little challenge as well as trying to raise a little bit of money for charity”. As well as this, she told me about the training she had done in preparation for the half marathon, involving weight training and one long and short run a week. I also asked her, what she thought the hardest part would be and her response was: “It’s quite a long race so it’s just getting through the boredom and keep it going and not go off too fast, I’ve got a habit of going off too fast, so it’s just about sticking with the pace really.”
Including all the runners and onlookers talking to friends and family in anticipation, there were many volunteers around helping set up and preparing for the runners’ return to give goody bags to all of them. This included Marylin Davis, who is an injured runner, who could not take part in today’s marathon. However, she still wanted to be included in the role of a volunteer, as she believed that “It’s good to, if you do run, to see the other side of the races as a volunteer”.
Even if the weather seemed rather gloomy in the morning, a big thank you to all those who came out to enjoy, what was in the end, a perfect day for a run outdoors for charity.
By Aurora Middleton
