Businesses are backing a new 10k race in Swaffham which has been renamed the Hughes Sublime 10k after the East Anglian electrical retailer signed up as headline sponsor.
When Tony Foice-Beard and Martin Jennings came up with a plan for a new 10k race in Swaffham – they knew they had a good idea on paper. But the critical part was convincing others to back them.
Now with just a few days to go before race day, Tony has been back in touch and says he has been delighted at the amount of enthusiasm and support that has been shown for the new event and in particular how businesses have got behind them.
That has seen East Anglian business Hughes Electrical agreeing to sign up as the headline sponsor.
“Having Hughes on board is massive,” says Tony.
Welcome to the Hughes Sublime Swaffham 10k
Other local businesses supporting the event are Everybody Health and Fitness, Swaffham Building Supplies, Splinters DIY & Timber, DC Engineering, and Sportlink.
Tony says that with a fair wind there will be 300 runners set to line up at the Green Britain Centre on Sunday for the inaugural Hughes Sublime Swaffham 10k event with capacity set at 400 places. Places are still available – online entries close on Friday, but sign ups are also possible on the day – and Tony says the pair have been so impressed at how things have gone that their thoughts are now turning to whether to organise a separate 5k event series in the town too.
Still time to sign up online – if you hurry, or you can enter on the day
It all seems like quite a journey after the pair first came up with the idea in the New Year – combining hours of planning and organisation with their day jobs, family commitments, and of course their own running (both are keen members of Fenland Running Club).
But in that time they have won over the town council who have also agreed for partial road closures along the route, too.
Now the medals and the Technical T-shirt are ready, a team of 28 volunteer ‘Racemakers’ are in place, and all that is needed for the first Hughes Sublime Swaffham 10k is for race day itself to arrive.
“We believe that we will get close to 300 and considering that it’s the first event, that’s pretty phenomenal,” he says. “We’re all ready now to give everybody a ‘Sublime experience’ from the runners, to the volunteers, to the sponsors.”
And he says that the positive responses has led the pair to wonder whether they should do more events in the town in addition to the Hughes Sublime Swaffham 10k race.
“Some people are already asking us when our next one will be! Our original aim was to move around the country and look for places that didn’t have races, but we’ve been liaising with the guys trying to get the Swaffham Park Run off the ground, and we’re wondering now that we are getting a name for ourselves in Swaffham whether we should stay here and introduce a 5k series?”
