Cheering Manchester Marathon runners to the finish line

By Mariam

Every year in Manchester hosts the second largest marathon in the country. Dubbed the “flat and friendly” marathon it hosts 30,000 runners each year in April.

This year 30 women from our network joined other volunteers to support marathon participants by cheering them at the start of the race and providing water and congratulatory remarks of well done at the finish of the race.  

These are some of the feedback from the women:

“I expected the marathon to take 5 hours, there were a lot of runners it took 8 hours and more to end. I feel so happy and fulfilled now after the marathon, and I will do it again when given a chance.”

“I expected to socially connect with the task at hand, which was to give back to the community, this is my strength as a person. I feel psychologically recharged.”

“I expected some kind of odd treatment because we were volunteering but surprisingly everyone was happy that we were helping, and it made me more confident and content to help. It was a fulfilling experience.”

“I was not expecting to volunteer for that huge number of participants, I was tired after that because we had to serve participants with bottles of water.”

“I'm happy, I'm glad I had an opportunity to volunteer. People were so friendly, especially our supervisor.”

“I was so happy to volunteer, I have learnt more about marathons.  After I felt happy to have taken part in the event.”

Well done to all the runners!