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Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon: Thousands run across London in annual race

Fiona Simpson
9 October 2016

Thousands of people have run past some of the capital’s most iconic landmarks as part of the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon.

Some 16,000 runners trekked 13.1 miles through four of the city’s Royal Parks and took in sights including Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Royal Albert Hall and the Houses of Parliament.

The annual race is raises cash for the Royal Parks Foundation, which funds sport, education, art, heritage restoration and wildlife conservation projects across the parks.

The event is also expected to have raised £4 million for 431 charities.

Celebrity such as BBC Radio 2’s Jo Whiley, BBC presenters Emily Maitlis and Sophie Raworth, and author and broadcaster Ben Fogle joined the ranks for the run.

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Dartford’s Dave Cooke set an unofficial new world record for running the world’s fastest half marathon wearing upper body chainmail.

Mr Cooke, who crossed the finish line in two hours and 24 minutes, set the record for running a full marathon in the 20kg armour at the Virgin London Marathon in April.

He said: “I’m blistered, I'm bruised, I'm shattered but I have two world records to my name, and have raised an amazing amount of sponsorship for the London Air Ambulance. Not a bad year.”

Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon 2016

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The winning runner, Russ Best, 26, from Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire made it around the course in a time of one hour and nine minutes.

The fastest female runner was Rose Harvey, 24, from Clapham, who covered the distance in one hour and 21 minutes.

Sara Lom, chief executive of the Royal Parks Foundation, said: “It’s wonderful to see so many runners coming together from all across the UK and abroad, not only are they supporting the Royal Parks, they are supporting our beautiful green city. Parks are not a luxury they are a necessity and they make us feel better in so many different ways.”

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