The Rotary Clarendon Marathon is predominantly a community event to attract runners who want to face the challenge of a lovely scenic mainly off-road marathon or Half or 4-person Relay. The mantra is “It’s tough but you’ll love it” and that pretty much sums it up.

However, there is a secondary, really worthwhile reason for the event, and that is to raise funds for great causes. In the main, the funds raised go to charities supported by Rotary. A number of runners also raise funds for their own charities, but it is actually a very small percentage. I took this to heart last year and raise just over £5000 for Motor Neurone Disease, which my sister-in-law had at the time, though very sadly has died since then. Additionally, only a few runners actually declare they are raising funds, so the organisers never know the real financial benefit to charities.

https://www.mndassociation.org/

​This tough event is an ideal opportunity to raise funds both for Rotary-sponsored charities and individually-preferred charities.

So, here’s the challenge for 2024. See if you can get sponsorship for running in the event, especially if it is one of your first times or you have a particular finishing time in mind or have a specific charity you wish to support. And then to declare both which charity you are supporting and how much you raised.