Runners get ready for Reading's Half Marathon
Published 19 Mar 2011 12:30
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RUNNERS will be spurred on as they make their way around the track tomorrow by a host of helpful volunteers.
Participants in the Reading Half Marathon will be treated to a performance by Reading College students as they reach the halfway mark of the 13.1 mile course, and more than 40 volunteers and staff at the stand outside the Duchess of Kent House will cheer them on as they reach the middle mile.
Leo Brown, a programme leader in music at Reading College, said: "Working with our local hospice at one of Reading's biggest events is a great opportunity for the bands."
Meanwhile, Tilehurst Townswomen's Guild will be on hand to refresh runners at the end of the course by handing out drinks as they cross the finish line.
Campaigners for Reading Yes To AV will also be getting their message across loud and clear as they parade with banners, leaflets and balloons. Three members of the group will also be kitted out in "Yes To AV" T-shirts as they run the course to raise awareness for the campaign.
Jen Wood, an assistant director at the Explore Learning tuition centre in Calcot, is running to highlight the plight of Kenya's street children. She said: "In Kenya, they take street children off the streets in a 'protection and care' mandate the government has, and they are housed alongside child criminals in the juvenile prison."
Ms Wood set up the Tsunami Stepping Stone project, due to launch in August, to help to rehabilitate the street children and provide them with an education. She will be running the marathon with her dad tomorrow to raise cash for the project.
Meanwhile, a Reading MS sufferer is getting ready to compete in her first ever marathon. Tracy Beers, 36, from Mortimer, decided to sign up after seeing first hand the good work that the MS Therapy Centre, in Oxford Road, provides. She said: "I was diagnosed with a mild form of the illness in 2008, but it comes and goes. At the moment I'm fine and it hasn't affected my training, but I wanted to raise money for people who are at worse stages with the disease."
Readings' Red Cross volunteers will be manning first aid posts along the length of the route, as well as providing 11 ambulances to help struggling on the route. Kaye Howard, Red Cross senior service manager, said: "We're really excited and proud to be involved in such a large and important local event."
This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 18 Mar 11
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