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A Great Day at the Sunderland 10k

Sunday 6 May 2012 saw the second Sunderland 10k and the inaugural Marathon of the North take place in beautiful conditions in the city of Sunderland. And The Tony Blair Sports Foundation was there to help with the event and to cheer on the thousands of runners who took part.

A team of TBSF volunteers helped out at the event by marshalling on the course to make sure that all runners safely navigated their way through the streets of Sunderland, while other TBSF volunteers were on hand to set up and man the finish area inside the Stadium of Light where all the runners collected their medals, t-shirts and their well-deserved goody bags after completing the race. This was a great experience for the team of volunteers, and one that they really enjoyed. Jeanette Pickard, Chief Executive of The Tony Blair Sports Foundation, commented:

“Events like the Sunderland 10k and the Marathon of the North are fantastic for our region and it’s great to see so many people taking part. It’s also great to see our TBSF volunteers getting involved in the events and putting their skills into practice.”

One of the participants in the Sunderland 10k was TBSF member Graham Smith, who took on the 10k course as part of his 2012 miles in 2012 challenge for The Tony Blair Sports Foundation. Graham thoroughly enjoyed the event, and recorded a personal best time on the day:

“I’ve never taken part in the Sunderland 10k before but after my experience there on Sunday I will most definitely be running it again. Arriving at the Stadium of Light, the atmosphere was absolutely electric and the weather conditions were perfect. From the starting gun going off I knew I was running faster than normal but I managed to keep the same pace. What with the weather conditions, the atmosphere, the route and running with so many lovely people I managed to achieve my personal best time – 52 minutes 38 seconds.”

Graham has now run 710.64 miles as part of his challenge which is a phenomenal achievement and The Tony Blair Sports Foundation would like to thank him for taking on this challenge to help support the Foundation’s work.

To keep up to date with the latest news about Graham’s challenge, you can follow his blog at http://2012milesin2012graham.wordpress.com/ or via Twitter www.twitter.com/whickhamrunning

If you would like to support Graham by making a donation, please visit his just giving page at www.justgiving.com/graham-smith19

For more information about how you can get involved in helping the work of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation please contact us by emailing info@tonyblairsportsfoundation.org or call us on 0191 276 0640