The 2019 Royal Parks Half Marathon presented by Royal Bank of Canada, will take place on Sunday October 13 and, once again, will celebrate the best of London’s spectacular green landscapes.
Now in its 12th year and one of the most iconic half marathons in the world, the route will take 16,000 runners through four of London’s eight Royal Parks including Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens, as well as passing by famed London landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament.
The Royal Parks is the charity that exists to make sure London’s eight historic royal parks will always be there to enrich the lives of local residents and visitors to London. To that end, in 2019 the Royal Parks Half Marathon will host events throughout the year in several of the Royal Parks, to encourage runners to #RunTheParks and to share the green space which enriches their lives.
The Royal Parks Half Marathon also leads the way with its sustainability efforts. The race has renewed its commitment to remove all plastic bottles from the event by 2020. More than 134,000 plastic bottles will be replaced by compostable paper cups in 2019. Runners will now receive a finishers race shirt in order to eliminate the plastic wrap that is required when the shirts are shipped individually.
In addition, sustainable materials are used throughout all aspects of the race, including bamboo and recycled polyester shirts, wooden medals and banana composting bins, to name a few.
In 2018, the Royal Parks Half Marathon’s fundraising efforts broke an all-time record and topped £6 million. Since the inception of the race in 2008, the money raised for over 1,000 charities including the Royal Parks, Cancer Research UK, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Macmillan Cancer Support and Mind nears £43 million.
“The Half Marathon enables us to raise vital funds to ensure the parks continue to be cared for and maintained to the very highest standards. People enjoy visiting our parks for a variety of reasons, whether that’s simply to get away from the hustle and bustle of London, to exercise in beautiful surroundings or to immerse themselves in the historic natural environment,” says Persephone Deacon-Cole, Project Lead at The Royal Park.
“We expect that 2019 will be our best year yet! We look forward to seeing everyone enjoy the parks throughout the year and, come October, turn out in Hyde Park to run the half or cheer from the side lines.”
The 2019 public ballot will open on Tuesday 29th January.
You can register your interest in the 2019 race by following the link: https://royalparkshalf.com/Enter-the-ballot/
