A month ago, 150 international runners joined 2000 local Ugandans in running a unique, very special course in rural Africa. Some took on the full marathon, whilst others the half marathon or 10K course. But they all ran with one thing in common- to make a difference to the local Masaka community and eleven charity projects in the region.
And the race was only the final part of the 7-day long adventure, which saw participants volunteer at the projects they were supporting, experience a new culture, make many new friends, have drinks around the camp fire, and experience a truly unique African adventure.
With the date of next year’s event recently being confirmed as 04.06.17, the 2016 event also being confirmed as Uganda’s biggest public fundraising event, and 2016 reunion being held tomorrow in Central London, now seems an appropriate time to look back at some of those special moments from the 7-day adventure in June 2016.
Here’s the first of our many blogs this summer, celebrating the Uganda Marathon 2016 and what we loved so much about it…
The Difference the Runners made…
Visiting the projects and working side by side with the community…
Making a difference…
…and leaving lasting change to benefit generations of Ugandans to come…
The Community Spirit…
The friendships formed over just a few days, which will last a life-time…
The team spirit, encouragement and the support for each other…
The festival feel…
…at a beautiful campsite in the middle of rural Uganda…
…with evenings under the stars….
…Drinks around the campfire, sharing stories of the days events volunteering at the projects and getting to know one another…
Running a Race Like No Other…
On a course that has a little bit of everything around the beautiful Masaka region…
Running side-by-side with the local community…
…with some very special local support (where families cheered from their homes, and children even joined our runners for a mile or two!)
The amazing achievements by every one of our runners…
Reaching the finish line and doing something very special…
…and of course, the incredible, incredible fundraising efforts by everyone. Collectively, our 2016 runners made the Uganda Marathon the biggest public fundraising event in Ugandan history!! we can’t thank them enough for all their hard work fundraising and training over the last several months.
We’ll have more highlights of the 2016 adventure over the coming weeks, as well as stories told by the participants themselves!
