THE English Half Marathon returns to Warrington for a fourth consecutive year and is set to continue for at least another three years thanks to sponsorship from Spire Healthcare.
This year’s Spire English Half Marathon will take place on Sunday September 9 and has been a huge success since the first race in Warrington in 2009 with last year’s event race attracting more than 2,000 runners.
The half marathon starts in Victoria Park at 9.00am and the route takes runners 13.1 miles through Warrington, Stockton Health and Grappenhall before heading back and finishing with one lap of the track in Victoria Park so the runners have a cheering crowd as they pass the finish line.
For the second year, Spire Healthcare have been announced as the race sponsors for 2012 and have shown their commitment to the race for the future.
Andy Eadsforth, Hospital Director said: “We sponsored the English Half Marathon for the first time last year and were really excited to be part of a great community event which not only brought together local people but also attracted visitors from around the country into the town.”
“We were so impressed with the day, from the organisation for both runners and sponsors to the quality of the course, and even the weather was great! So, we’ve not only agreed to take the title sponsorship for 2012 but for a further 3 years. We’re hoping that the Olympics will inspire even more people to take part this year and join in a truly great community day.”
“Spire Cheshire will again be involving it’s hospital team and consultants in the event – some will be running and raising money for their favourite charities, others will be volunteering with marshalling or manning water stations on the day.”
“Spire Cheshire’s expert Orthopaedic Consultants and Physiotherapists see many patients with injuries sustained through sporting activities so they’ll also be able to offer advice to the runners on how to avoid injury, get fit and stay healthy during training for this year’s English Half Marathon.”
Mike James the race director said, “I am really looking forward to the race this year. 2012 is a big sporting year and we are hoping that more people than ever will sign up to run the race. We are encouraging new runners to take up the challenge and are challenging those who have ran the race before to beat their personal best. The course is the same this year and we have great plans for race day. We have had a great response, with lots of runners signing up through the website www.english-half.com already. I am really pleased with the continued support from our sponsors Spire and this year we aim to make the race bigger and better than before for local people.”
Picture shows the Spire Healthcare team at last year’s event.
