The 41st London Marathon took place on Sunday, 3 October. We salute the valiant runners who ran for Genesis Trust in this iconic event. Some of our runners had been ready to run in April 2020 when the COVID 19 Pandemic changed their plans! Finally, after waiting for such a long time for mass participation events to be allowed again, it was fantastic that these six wonderful people could take on this challenge of a lifetime. Even after 26.2 gruelling miles our runners were still able to say, ‘ I had a wonderful day, thank you, and enjoyed every minute of it!!’
Five of Team Genesis ran the marathon on the London streets – Kelly Bennett, Laura Collins, Chris Cooke, Julia Pain and Dave Joyce. And George Setterfield, did the Virtual London Marathon which could be run anywhere in the world. The virtual race is extra hard because it is without the vibe and encouragement of 40,000 other runners and the supporting crowds in London. But George had the support of his friends and family as he ran the 26.2 miles around Witney Oxfordshire. Afterwards he said, ‘The run went really well, thank you – today has been a struggle, but worth all the aching!’
Chris and Laura joined the team as part of the support given to Genesis by Management Consultancy company i3Works. Chris said, it was ‘a truly amazing day that started at 5am – I was humbled by the number of people running for so many charities, the atmosphere amongst the runners and the support around the streets of London which helped get us through. Laura and I came across the finish line together in a time of 4hrs 45m – aches and pains aside I was very happy to bring to a close many months of training and fundraising.’
Kelly was one of the team who had been ready to run in April 2020, so she was especially pleased to have crossed the finish line on The Mall with her family there to see her achieve this challenge.
Dave Joyce, who is the Director of Bath Youth for Christ, ran for both BYFC and Genesis Trust whilst Julia Pain did the same for Mentoring Plus, another local charity that supports young people in the Bath area.
Every runner achieved so much that day and moreover raised vital funds for Genesis Trust and other important local causes. We are so grateful for their physical efforts and your fundraising efforts too!
If you feel motivated to run in the 2022 London Marathon please get in touch with hilary.long@genesistrust.org.uk. We would love to hear from you.
