SEE the certificate of course accuracy.
The first ever RUN FOR FUN SOLIHULL HALF MARATHON IN ASSOCIATION WITH VIRGIN ACTIVE SOLIHULL now will take place on Sunday 2nd April 2017 (moved from 23rd Oct 2016). Sponsored by IM Properties Plc.
The start and finish will be adjacent to the Virgin Active Solihull Club on Blythe Valley Park (owned by our partners IM Properties plc) just off Junction 4 of the M42 and can house hundreds of cars on the day of the event.
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Results and Race photographs
Results will be available immediately after the race at www.stuweb.co.uk, a link will be posted on our website soon after the race.
Photographs will be available soon after the race by going to
charleswhittonphotography.com/solihull-half-marathon-2417
PLEASE NOTE: REGISTRATION CLOSED AT 12 NOON FRIDAY MARCH 24TH. THIS EVENT IS AT FULL CAPACITY. SORRY, BUT THERE CAN BE NO LATE ENTRIES ON THE DAY.
PLEASE NOTE: RUNNER RACE PACKS WILL BE DELIVERED THROUGH THE POST WEEK starting 20th March 2017.
Physio Support
REST (Rayner’s Sports Massage and Therapy) will be present at the Solihull Half Marathon for pre and post race massages. Mike and his team will provide a free services with donations (minimum £5) to the event charity of choice Acorns Children’s Hospice. For more information go to facebook.com/MikeRayner.REST or call Mike on 07738758169
IM Properties Headquarters in Coleshill
Sponsored by IM Properties Plc
Local property company IM Properties Plc, is excited to be supporting the first Solihull half marathon as a headline sponsor, in partnership with KP Events.
IM Properties is one of the UK’s largest privately owned property companies, with an investment and development portfolio of circa £900 million across the UK, Europe and the USA.
Since it’s inception as part of the IM Group in 1987, IM Properties has grown to become one of the UK’s leading property developers. Spanning industrial, retail, office and residential sectors, IM Properties’ portfolio boasts a range of high quality global occupiers including Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Tesco and UPS.
As owners of Blythe Valley Park since 2014, the locally based developer was keen to support the event in April which will be starting and finishing at Virgin Active Health Club on site. Blythe Valley Park is strategically located in the heart of the UK, and with over 122 acres of beautiful country park, it is the perfect location for the first Solihull half Marathon.
In business, thriving in today’s competitive environment requires dedication and hard work; and health and well-being are an essential foundation to success. That’s why Blythe Valley Park is much more than just a collection of buildings; it’s a complete environment with dynamic space that emanates a sense of community. The Solihull Half Marathon also ties into the ‘Wellness at Work’ campaign at Blythe Valley which started in 2017, encouraging tenants of the park to look at their work/life balance through a range of workshops and articles all centered around wellbeing.
Blythe Valley Park is #NotYourAverage9to5 and the sense of community is one of the greatest attributes of the Park; which is strengthened by creating meaningful and lasting working relationships with occupiers. IM Properties is committed to maintaining Blythe Valley Park’s environment to a high standard for the benefit of occupiers.
About Run For Fun
“Run for Fun” (RFF) is an online running group founded by Maureen (Mo) Virtue in 2012 as a direct result of the inaugural National Lottery Olympic Stadium 5 mile run. Mo realised that the lucky ballot winners who took part in that race and who had shared their training stories through an online social media page would all lose contact unless she did something. Putting the idea of the “Run for Fun” group forward she was quickly joined by a few others and the original membership was 35. Since then membership has grown to over 6000 and it’s a rare occurrence to go to a race anywhere and not come across someone wearing a shirt bearing the RFF logo Ruffus.
Whilst running in other events is great fun Mo and fellow founding member Chris Murray wanted to work with an events company to stage an RFF half marathon. Chris is based in Solihull and had taken part in races organised by KP events so got in touch with Kevin Wilson of KP and now the inaugural RFF Solihull Half Marathon with Virgin Active as main sponsoring partner is all set for 23rd October this year.
Entry to the event is open to all runners and don’t be surprised though if you find you have a few hundred RFF members bearing Rufus and various motivational shirts alongside you.
Speaking ahead of the event RFF Leader Mo Virtue said “This is just so exciting and I can’t wait to see hundreds of our members running the Solihull Half Marathon along with hundreds of other running enthusiasts. It’s going to be brilliant and a dream come true!”
Acorns Children’s Hospice Trust
Local children will be benefiting as the first ever Solihull Half Marathon comes to town. Acorns Children’s Hospice, which provides specialist palliative care for life limited and life threatened children and support for their families across Solihull has been announced as the official charity of this event.
Rose Davie, events officer at Acorns urged local people to pull on their running shoes for the run. She said: “We’re thrilled to be chosen as the official charity for the Solihull Half Marathon and really hope lots of local people join us on the day to help raise the funds which are so vital for our care.
“It’s an excellent opportunity to be a part of the first ever half marathon to come to Solihull and running for Acorns will help give participants that extra push to reach the finish line, safe in the knowledge your efforts will help support local children and their families.”
The 13.1 mile scenic event will start and finish at Virgin Active, Blythe Valley Park, with entry at a discounted £26 for those who run to support Acorns.
Kevin Wilson from event organisers KP Events, said: “It’s brilliant to be involved with the first ever Run for Fun Solihull Half Marathon in association with Virgin Active and to then decide to work with Acorns Childrens Hospice as the events charity of choice is even better, such a worthy cause for all concerned”.
It costs Acorns nearly £10 million per year to provide its services and it relies on the support of the community and events such as the Solihull Half Marathon for the majority of this amount.
In the past year the charity has cared for over 800 children and supported more than 1,030 families, including those who are bereaved.
(L-R) Simon Durman and Gaz Lloyd from Virgin Active, Paul Griffin Race Director and Rose Davie from Acorns
Information about the rescheduling from Oct 2016 to Apr 2017
Rescheduling the date of any event is something that we have never had to do since we formed in 2011 and that we would only consider in the most extraneous of circumstances. On this occasion, the sheer practical logistics of having to change route for a third time as recently as last month and then have to ensure all the pieces are in place to satisfy the very rigorous health and safety requirements set by all external agencies involved in the planning and successful delivery cannot be guaranteed within our deadline.
This has meant we have taken the decision to reschedule at this time to give everyone who has registered for the event sufficient time to look at our alternative arrangements which are listed below and hopefully be able to take part in the event on the new rescheduled date of Sunday April 2nd 2017.
Alternative options:
- Runner entry has automatically been moved to the rescheduled date. However if this is not now convenient then here are other options.
- A full refund.
- Transfer entry to a relative/friend/colleague. We would need their details, and an email from them agreeing to our terms & conditions, declaring they are fit to run and will be taking the place.
- Finally, the option to defer the place to another one of our races of the same value.
KP Events offers its very sincere apologies to all parties affected by this decision, it is something that we have very reluctantly had to do but it has been unavoidable given the circumstances we found ourselves in.
Please go to the Terms and Conditions page on our website for further information.