Edinburgh, Scotland -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/22/2012 -- In spite of heavy rain and hailstones, around 800 runners, some in fancy dress, turned up to brave the bad weather on Sunday, for the Meadows Marathon. Organisers are hoping the event will be able to break last year’s fundraising total of £40,000. The event was set up in 2007 by Edinburgh University students, and includes a full marathon, along with a half marathon and 5km events. The runners completed laps of the Meadows but were hit by a shower of rain and hail at about 3pm while many were still on the course. We spoke to a source from ThinkMarketing, an Edinburgh-based sales and marketing company, who said, “It’s really impressive the amount of money that’s being raised for charity and that they’re just out there doing it, and not being put off.”
Toby Jones, a 22-year old student from Edinburgh University, was part of a fundraising team who all dressed as tigers for the run. “I’m very pleased as I thought I would take over two hours,” he said, “I had done no training at all so 1 hour 38 minutes for the half marathon wasn’t bad. Five of us were running to raise money for EGP, a student-led charity. We’re trying to raise £11,000 to build a community centre in Tanzania. The five of us are hoping to raise £2500.”
“There’s an absolute ton of worthy charities which people are running for,” said our source at ThinkMarketing, “It ranges from high profile charities like Make-A-Wish and Oxfam, all the way down to student-led small charities, and all of them benefit from the money raised.”
Joe Shaw, 19, an Edinburgh University student who lives in Pollock Halls, was dressed in a pink dress and blonde wig for the run. He said: “I was running to raise money for Edinburgh Students Charities Appeal, which raises money for many good causes.” He added, “There wasn’t any particular reason for my outfit. It was just a good excuse to dress up as a woman!”
George Ward, press officer for the event, said: “We had 100 people sign up on the day for the fun run event, which was great, and overall it’s been a real success. It was a shame about the rain but you can’t do much about that in Edinburgh. We’re really pleased with the turn-out and hope we can build on that for next year. We’ll have the fundraising total in the next seven days and we hope to equal or better last year’s figure of £40,000.”
“I’m sure with all the coverage the event has got this year we’ll see even more people turning out next year,” said our source at ThinkMarketing, “Which is great, because the event is a whole lot of fun, as well as being a great fundraising opportunity.”
http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/edinburgh/800-brave-bad-weather-for-meadows-marathon-1-2154172