Sportstiks Brentwood Half Marathon and Fun Run 2020

The 39^th annual Brentwood Half Marathon and Fun Run took place on Sunday 15^th March 2020. As title sponsors with our athlete id brand, Sportstiks, we have been closely involved in the planning and build up to the event, assisting the organisers from the Rotary Club of Brentwood a Becket in various different ways in addition to supplying some of the key elements to the event.

Sportstiks has provided the following elements to the event:

• Personalised Race bibs (running numbers)
• START and FINISH line banners
• Design and supply of event t-shirts (ensuring 100% of money received from sales goes to charity)
• Design and supply of finishers medals. This year we chose a more sustainable option of wooden medals manufactured from FSC approved resources and produced in the UK therefor reducing the carbon footprint usually created by supply from China.
• Packs of Hi-5 Sports Jellies for finishers for a sugar boost post event.
• Printing and posting of around 1100 letters to local residents forewarning of road closures on event day.
• All the winners’ trophies and awards for the various categories in both the Half marathon and Fun Run.
• Social media management.

In addition we also organised and kitted out a team of pacers to add to the runners’ race day experience, helping those with a target time to achieve their personal bests. We were overwhelmed with the response from runners volunteering their time and experience to pace the event. Our chosen pacers were a huge hit on the day with numerous runners either achieving the times they’d hoped for or just felt encouraged and motivated by the team of pacers.

Some quotes from runners posted on the Brentwood Half Marathon Facebook Page

Awesome running and great communication, thank you pace makers especially 2:00 , we made the sub 2 hr mark with your help

Pacers for 1.50 got me over the finish line…my absolute heroes today. Thank you so much…I had given up but your encouragement was just what I needed.

Thank you so much 1:45 pacer who encouraged me up the last mile and waited at the finish line to made sure I make it under 1:45… you are a legend

Thank you to the 2.15 pacer (although I lost her at the end as I stopped to adjust my trainer!) She created such a good atmosphere .. felt like I was part of a team lol!

As title sponsors our only interests in supporting the event have been to help ensure that as much money raised from entry fees goes to charity by either covering costs or supplying elements free of charge while also promoting this fantastic community event. As Brentwood’s Business of the Year and a company that strongly promotes wellbeing at work and encourages and cares for our staff we recognise the positive energy generated from the Brentwood Half Marathon and Fun Run. We have supported the event for a number of years before becoming title sponsors in 2018. There has been a  team of our employees and their families running in both the half marathon and fun run events each year since moving the business to Brentwood in 2011. This year we had around 30 team members taking part and more involved in volunteering at the finish line distributing water to finishers.

We are very proud of our association with the event over the last 3 years. We’ve worked closely with the event organising committee including Race Director Bob Davey, Tony Clark and Richard Thatcher who have been organising the Brentwood Half since its inception 39 years ago. They are a committed and diligent team who, this year, faced the challenge of the Coronavirus pandemic and the threat that the event may have to be cancelled.

The decision to proceed was not taken lightly and although we were consulted and helped advise on measures needed to be taken on race day, the decision was made following government guidelines at the time that an outdoor event such as the Sportstiks Brentwood Half Marathon remained as a low risk for infection. A decision that was supported by our local MP Alex Burghart who officially started the race alongside Cllr Keith Parker, Mayor of Brentwood.

Quote from Alex Burghart MP

Congratulations to all who took part in the Brentwood Half Marathon yesterday and I was delighted to join the Mayor of Brentwood, Cllr Keith Parker, to start the races. The organisers did a great job in enabling this superb event to go ahead amid the rapidly changing advice over the Covid-19 outbreak. To all those who ran the race yesterday; I hope your muscles are not too sore today. To all those planning to run the virtual race instead; keep safe and make sure your time is logged with the organisers by April 15th.

Sportstiks is supporting the endeavour of a Virtual Brentwood Half Marathon by managing the social media aspect and collating the evidence posted by runners of their virtual runs.

Sportstiks supplies sporting events across the globe with athlete identification so along with the rest of the sporting event industry faces a challenging time ahead as events are cancelled or postponed. The Brentwood Half Marathon and Fun Run may well be the last organised running event this year’s entrants take part in for some time which made Sunday’s event even more important.

Well done to all runners to took part in the event and a huge thank you to the organising committee, to all the volunteers and to the marshals for adding to the success of the 2020 event.