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Royal Parks Half Marathon Success!

Putting aside delayed trains, a bit of early rain and long queues for the loos, 22 runners for Malaika Kids were on the start line on time, for most of us our first ever half marathon. We also had one brave runner who completed the event in a blue morph suit!

It was great to see Malaika Kids Netherlands volunteer Robin Schonenberg leading the field from the start line. He and one of our student runners, Alex Marriage, were amongst the fastest 100 to cross the finishing line which is an amazing achievement! And in the junior 3.2km race we had just one runner who sprinted like never before and came 11th in the boys race, well done Jamie!

Robin Schonenberg leading the field from the start line.

One of the runners who has never attempted a half marathon before reflected on the race: "I am told that we passed many London sites like Buckingham Palace, the Eye and the Houses of Parliament but I didn't see any of them. I was so focused on reaching that halfway mark. I thought if I could reach that it would all be downhill from there. But running the last 6.5 miles in Hyde Park was really hard, especially when you could see the path weaving up and down the slopes and an endless stream of runners spread out ahead of us. Crossing the line was magical, it felt such an achievement. Now I ache like hell though." All in all it was a great event enjoyed by both runners and supporters and the sun even shone at the end whilst we topped up the calories. Together we have raised about £12,000 so far for Malaika Kids and are hoping that it will reach a bit closer to £15,000 when all the sponsorship is received. Well done team!