Jonathan Allsop, from Cotgrave, has won a trip to the Big Apple later this year to run in the New York City Marathon. He was the winner of the Experian Robin Hood Festival of Running Perceptive Informatics Charity Challenge, which invites all festival runners to raise as much money as possible for the four Official Charities of the event; CLIC Sargent, The Fire Fighters Charity, Alzheimer’s Society and Headway – the brain injury association.
Jonathan, who runs a scrap metal business, raised a total of £1,359.14 to win the trip, which includes one place in the New York Marathon along with flights and weekend’s stay in the city for two. The 2008 Charity Challenge, which is annually sponsored by Perceptive Informatics (formerly Clinphone), was open to all runners that raised over £1000 for the Official Charities.
Last year only four people raised enough to qualify for the 2008 prize draw, this placed Jonathan with a one in four chance of winning the top prize. In a bid to encourage more people to get involved in this year’s Charity Challenge the total amount needed to be raised for the top prize has been lowered to £750. Also on offer to all those who choose to run for the Official Charities is a year's membership to Nottingham’s premier health club, Hoofers (if you raise over £350) and a pair of New Balance trainers (if you raise over £100).
Jonathan, age 27, had never really run before taking part in last year’s event, he said, “The Robin Hood Half Marathon popped up in conversation with a mate who was thinking of running and I thought it would be a good idea to give it a go. Unfortunately they dropped out so I ended up running it alone. I saw the official charities on the info pack and thought it would be a good opportunity to raise some money as well.
“I had also seen the prizes on offer for the Charity Challenge and thought it would be great to win the trip to New York, but never thought I would get it. It was such a shock when I got the call, but a really pleasant surprise! I didn’t realise how much money I was going to raise, but all the customers that came in to the shop were really generous.
Speaking about the race he said, “It went much better than I thought it would; I didn’t expect to do it in 1:44. I am going to do the Notts half again this year in preparation for New York in November, so it’s great that New Balance has also offered to kit me out with trainers and gear as well. And of course, I will be raising money for the official charities again.”
In 2008 the Official Charities raised just under £75,000 between them, which came from runner’s sponsorship, contributions from Sweatshop on the entry fee and donations online, and funds raised from the Cooper Parry Corporate Challenge and money raised on the day.
CLIC Sargent, the leading children’s cancer charity is one of beneficiaries of the event. Dee Richardson, Event Fundraising Manager for the North and East Midlands, said, “It is an honour to be one of the Official Charities of this event and we are so grateful to all the runners that choose to support us. Only a small fraction of entrants do though and we would like to encourage more to consider it. If you don’t know who to run for, there are four great causes here that would love your support.
“For us, raising just £100 means a young person who has cancer or leukaemia can go on an activity weekend. After months in hospital it helps them restore self confidence, regain independence and rebuild a social life. Raising as much as Jonathan did means the whole family can go away on a relaxing holiday. The money we raised last year has gone towards helping 163 Nottinghamshire patients, over 80 of which were new to the charity.”
Charity Challenge sponsors Perceptive Informatics are fully behind the Experian Robin Hood Festival of Running and today (17 June) lots of their employees are being fitted out with running trainers for the event by technical specialists New Balance.
Steve Kent, President of Perceptive Informatics added, “Perceptive Informatics is proud to be sponsoring the Charity Challenge for a seventh consecutive year, and we look forward to supporting the Experian Robin Hood Festival of Running again for the 2009 event. We are delighted to be involved in an event like the Experian Robin Hood Marathon especially when committed people like Jonathan take part and raise so much for charities focused on helping the local community as well as patients and families dealing with serious diseases."
In order to help runners raise money for the Official Charities more easily they have teamed up with mycharitypage.com, a website which, similarly to Just Giving, allows you to create your own personalised fundraising page. This is the first time that a group of charities have teamed up to take advantage of the online fundraising system as a collective.
Now, friends, family and colleagues from all over the world can log on and support you by making a donation securely, quickly and easily with a credit or debit card. The website for the Experian Robin Hood Festival of Running can be accessed through www.experianrobinhood.com.
8,500 people attended, BikeRadar Live, Britain’s biggest ever outdoor cycling festival at Donington Park this weekend (30/31 May). Visitors took on events including a 100mile grueling Peak District ride, which started and finished on the Donington track. The slightly shorter 100km route attracted Formula One star Mark Webber, who was one of the first finishers. There were also track races, exciting downhill mountain bike races, endurance racing throughout the night, stunt jumping and tricks riding from You Tube sensation, Danny MacAskill.
Britain’s Gee Atherton picked up the £5000 prize for the Dual Slalom Eliminator event, which saw cyclist launching themselves downhill at phenomenal speeds. As the sun set on Saturday night large crowds gathered to see Atherton beat some of the world’s top cyclists, including American, Brian Lopes, before heading to enjoy the evening DJ sessions and parties. Lopes recorded a win the following day by setting the fastest 200m and peak power scores on the Wattbikes.
The Flying Scotsman, Graeme Obree, brought along a specially designed bike as he attempted to set the fastest lap time around the challenging 2.5mile circuit. However, the former world record breaker was beaten by Andy Sexton who bettered his time of 5min43seconds by 12 seconds.
Sexton said: "It was a really tough circuit. I've seen the hills on TV and it's hillier in real life than it looks on the telly. "It was fantastically fast on the way out with a bit of a tailwind but after that it was hard work all the way back, especially with the long drag up to the finish. I saw Obree coming up there pushing a ridiculously big gear. If he'd had a sensible gear on he might have done it a minute quicker. It was great to be able to ride on the same track as him to be honest!"
