Grafham Water Marathon - Chasqui Challenge 2011
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On Sunday 18th of September 2011, people from all over the country came together to support Amantani and its children in Peru. 216 excited runners took on the gruelling run through the beautiful countryside surrounding Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire. The runners made the most of the sunny conditions to put in some fantastic times on what is a tough cross-country route.
The 40 runners raising funds for Amantani were helped on their way by a great atmosphere emanating from the Peruvian Trading Village located at the start and finish area. For many of the participants and their supporters this was their first chance to experience the delights of Peru: fine food from Titos Peruvian Restaurant, the sounds of the Andes from the fantastic Kausary band, lovely Alpacas from Houghton Hall, clothing, crafts and lots of information about issues in Peru and other countries in Latin America.
For the Amantani runners, the hard work had begun long before this sunny day in September. Many began back in February, heading out onto the icy streets surrounding their houses to take on the first mile of a long and arduous journey which would eventually culminate on the shores of Grafham Water. They also took the time to raise crucial funds leading up to the day and this led to an amazing amount of money being raised for Amantani – over £21,000! We are blown away by everyone’s support and would like to thank everyone who took part.
A huge thank you to Andean Trails for their support as our main sponsor - they even had Kat and Kathy come down from Scotland to have a run!
There were many other unsung heroes involved in the organisation of the event and we'd like to thank them for helping to make our first marathon and largest fundraising event yet - a storming success!
We hope to organise the Grafham Water Marathon again in the future, so please get in touch if you are interested in joining us.
Fastest running times:
Half Marathon – Steve Giles (1h.25mins.18 secs)
Marathon – Sam Robson (3h.18mins.50 secs)
