Safaricom, Kenya’s top telecoms operators, has said this year’s Safaricom Marathon will take place Saturday at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy — where Prince William proposed to his girlfriend Kate Middleton.
This year’s Safaricom Marathon will be the thirteenth edition since the telecoms company first launched the event in 2000.
Safaricom said despite the event being regarded as one of the toughest globally, all athletes irrespective of their abilities, including professionals like Paul Tergat, and Catherine Ndereba, participate.
The 42-kilometre run will be held at the conservancy. Full marathon runners will run two laps since the area is only 21 kilometres long.
Medical practitioners from AMREF, Flying doctors, Nairobi Equator Hospital, Red Cross and Nanyuki Cottage Hospital will provide first aid services. For a serious emergency case, a helicopter will provide an airlift.
The money raised in the project will be channelled towards improving the lives of people in the rural areas who miss out on quality education and healthcare.
All participants will be awarded a medal and those finishing the race will get a bag too.
The first male and Female runners in the full marathon will pocket KSh150,000. The second will get 80,000 while the third and fourth will get 60,000 and 40,000 respectively. The fifth will get 20,000 respectively.
For the half marathon, the first three winners will get KSh 80,000, 40,000 and 20,000.
In the teams category, one that raises most money will have a trophy also the first five community teams will be awarded with Ksh 30,000, 20,000, 10,000, 5,000 and 2,500.
Safaricom is the main sponsor of the event and hopes to raise more money compared to last year. In 2011,Safaricom Marathon raised KSh37,500,000.
Founded in 1997, Safaricom is atelephone network operator inKenya. The Safaricom Marathon is part of the company’s community responsibility programme.
