After training and collecting donations for the last few months, Plum’s Marketing Manager Rhodri Lloyd yesterday successfully completed the Bupa Manchester 10km run. Running as one of 33,000 runners, Rhodri completed the run in 55 mins 49 seconds, finishing in 10,425th position in the top third of all the runners. “As pleased as I am to have successfully completed the run in under an hour, I am a bit disappointed with my time as I had hoped to do it in nearer 50 minutes. Regardless of that though, I had a great day. The atmosphere and support from everyone, from the spectators to performing musicians to fellow runners, was brilliant. I would recommend the run to anyone, even if you don’t rate yourself as a long distance runner, simply for the experience on the day itself. I’m sure this will be the first of many runs I do for charity”.
Rhodri had originally aimed to raise £300 in the process of running the 10km race for the Alzheimer’s Society, in memory of his grandfather who died from Alzheimer’s in 2003, but has so far exceeded this target with the current figure standing at £355. “Up until about a week and a half ago I was worried that I wouldn’t meet my original target of £300. Fortunately however, people have been extremely generous over the last week, in particularly Plum Communications, which has seen my fundraising figure shoot up past £300. I still know of many people who have promised to sponsor me post event, so who knows what my final fundraising figure will be”. You can still make a donation or view his Justgiving donations page at www.justgiving.com/rhodri10kmrun.
The men’s 10km race was won by Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie in 27 mins 39 seconds. The women’s race was won by Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot in 32 mins and 1 second. Another event held as part of the day was a special 150m street race, featuring the current 100m and 200m world record holder Usain Bolt. He won the race in a world record time of 14.35 secs.
Below are two videos showing the highlights of both the 10km run and 150m race events
