This weekend, a record number of people made their way to Northumberland’s Kielder Water and Forest park to take part in both the Kielder marathon and half-marathon.
Dubbed Britain’s ‘most beautiful’ marathon – the event saw some 700 runners take part in the half-marathon, even including a BBC reporter, while the full marathon, celebrating it’s 6th year, attracted around 850 participants. The winning runner was Matthew Jones who managed to cross the finish line in a staggering 2 hours and 2 seconds. It’s no surprise that Matthew described himself as both “elated” and “tired” in an interview after the race had ended.
The area is well-known for having northern Europe’s largest man-made lake and is famous for it’s calm and peaceful surrounding – giving it the ‘most beautiful tag’. The ambience may have been disturbed, however, by the record-breaking amount of people who took part in the event, which includes the Kielder 10k, run-bike-run events, junior races and series of different walks.
Count Val Tyler, a cabinet member for Arts, Leisure and Culture at Northumberland City Council said:
“The addition of the half-marathon to this year’s event shows the popularity of Kielder and Northumberland for outdoor activities.”
Of course, it’s not just the Kielder marathon which has grew in popularity in recent times, marathons all across the UK are getting more and more popular thanks to the general public becoming more health conscious and the benefits leading a healthy, active lifestyle could have on you. With people using these events to get fit, get in shape and have fun by taking part in them with their friends and family. Another tradition which has grew in popularity is that of wearing personalised t shirts and personalised clothing while attending the event. More and more people are seen donning fancy dress costumes or using runs to help raise money for charity or to raise awareness of their business within the local community.
Wearing custom running shirts is ideal for these kinds of events as it allows you to showcase the cause that you’re running for, get the name of your business out there and it also allows you to stand out from the rest of the runners – something which is difficult to achieve when there’s so many people taking part.
At Garment Printing, we’ve seen an increase the amount of orders from businesses and charities alike for t shirt printing and custom designed sportswear for taking part in marathons and running events as it allows their staff and volunteers to look the part while they’re running and it also helps increase the popularity of their brand.
So, if you’re an employer looking to send your employee’s out to the next marathon or triathlon, or if you’re running to raise money and awareness for a local charity – take advantage of our excellent and unique running clothes, all of which is fully customisable with your own logo and designs, and ensure that your team look the bee’s knees.
