A big congratulations to Talk Straight & Schools Broadband who ran the Leeds 10K for us on Sunday.
Not only did they raise over £600 but the company director have agreed to match the amount!
We spoke to Deborah from the team to find out how the race went and of course say a massive thank you for fundraising for us.
Leeds 10k – Deborah Marshall
Most of us were up and about on Sunday before 7am ready to travel into Leeds for The Jane Tomlinson 10K. With the skies above us looking overcast we thought we’d be in for a relatively cool morning – how wrong we were!
Meeting up at Leeds’ Millennium Square at 8.30, we enjoyed a drink at the Leeds Museum whilst taking in the atmosphere. With over 7,000 runners taking part, the central streets of Leeds were buzzing with participants and their families and there was a great feeling in the air. Many of the runners had decided to come in fancy dress and we caught sight of some storm troopers, minions and even a man dressed as a bunch of grapes! There was a stage set-up in the square and the DJs had organised a huge aerobics routine to get everyone warmed up!
We soon made our way down to the start, and following a quick stretch and warm up in the corporate pen we were off! The route took us down past the main shopping area in Leeds where literally thousands of people had come along to cheer us on. After that it was across past the train station and onto Kirkstall Road. By this time the sun was well and truly out of the clouds and it got very warm indeed! Running along Kirkstall Road was the hardest – although the route is almost completely flat, this is longest stretch of the course and it feels like it’s never going to come to an end!
As we took the turn to head back into Leeds the sun became even stronger and it became really hard to run in such intense heat. Luckily there were plenty of water stations to keep us hydrated. As our team had a broad range of running abilities, I’m sad to say that we couldn’t stick together throughout the race – but we did make some excellent times. Our fastest runner made it in 50 minutes with everyone else not far behind, getting times of between 51 minutes and 1 hour 10. It was such a great feeling to run up to the finish line on the Headrow – it being lined on both sides with thousands cheering us on for the last 300 metres.
Feeling tired but happy, we met up afterwards for group photos. Everyone agreed we’d had a really fantastic day plus we’d smashed our £500 target for Childnet! There’s certainly some sore legs in the office today, but it’s nothing we won’t recover from – in fact we’re now looking for our next team challenge so watch this space!
A big congratulations and thank you from everyone at Childnet.
If you are interested in fundraising for us please do drop Laura a line at [email protected]
