Tesco Great School Run 2012 needs volunteers

On Friday 15th June 2012, Eastlands will host the Tesco Great School Run Finale, Manchester, which will see up to 5,000 primary school children from Manchester schools complete a 2km run around the Etihad Stadium and Campus.

The event is the finale to the 6 week Tesco Great School Run Tour which will have seen over 1.2 million primary school children in the UK take part in the 8th year of the project.

There are opportunities for individuals to volunteer on this event as Marshals. Safety at Great Run events is paramount and therefore we are hoping to recruit a good number of responsible individuals to work in select roles, alongside our event crew, with varied levels of responsibility.

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Urbanathlon - Manchester 2011

The Urbanathlon is an 5k urban adventure race run around East Manchester, it started at Sportcity (home of Manchester City) and ended in Philips Park. Along the route various obstacles are placed in the way that runners needed to be overcome, most were easy, some harder and then there are ones like the water slide which were fun (no I did not try it), although some found it difficult running when wet through. This was the fourth Urbanathlon, the first one run in 2008 was probably the hardest, longest and best one, recent ones have been shortened to 5k and made easier and aimed more at having fun. Most of the runners did enjoy the race while some found it quite demanding, the need to be well prepared for a race like this is extremely important, and perhaps some were not as well prepared as they should have been.

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Belle Vue Zoological Gardens

Belle Vue Zoological Gardens was a large zoo, amusement park, exhibition hall complex and speedway stadium in Belle Vue, Manchester, England, opened in 1836. The brainchild of John Jennison, the gardens were initially intended to be an entertainment for the genteel middle-classes, with formal gardens and dancing on open-air platforms during the summer, but they soon became one of the most popular attractions in northern England. Before moving to Belle Vue, Jennison, part-time gardener, had run a small aviary at his home: the beginnings of the zoo which over the years grew to become the third-largest in the United Kingdom.

Jennison set out a small amusements area in Belle Vue during the 1870s, which was expanded in the early 20th century to become what was advertised as the "showground of the world". Popular rides included the 60-mile-per-hour (97 km/h) Bobs' rollercoaster and the Scenic Railway. Other entertainments included grand firework displays from 1852 and an annual Christmas circus from 1922. Music and dancing were popular attractions in Belle Vue's various ballrooms. The Kings Hall, opened in 1910, housed The Hallé Orchestra for several years and also hosted concerts by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Leonard Cohen and Led Zeppelin.

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Maharajah the Belle Vue Elephant still shines today

On a recent visit to Manchester Museum I was pleasantly surprised, I noticed an exhibit that brought memories flooding back of Belle Vue. In fact the exhibit in question deserves to have a film made about his short life, whether the stories were true or not does not matter, he is without doubt part of local folklore and was a celebrity at Belle Vue. He was born around 1865, the elephant was about 7/8 years old when he was purchased in 1872 as part of a job lot at an auction, animals from Wombwell's Royal Number One Menagerie in Edinburgh were being sold off after closing down.

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Tesco Great School Fun Run at Sportcity, Manchester 2011

Went for a walk around to the ashton canal yesterday, as I was going through Sportcity I heard lots of noise, it was the Tesco Great School Fun Run. I managed to take a few Photos, the weather was typically wet, the fun run had already started and I missed most of it but I managed to catch some late comers at the start line.

The children aged between 5 - 11 have been preparing for weeks leading up to the 2km fun run, as well as heathly eating it was also about promoting a positive attitude to physical fitness. Basically what this means is running is fun providing you follow a few simple rules, educating the children about how to look after the body in a fun way, judging by the noise as you entered Sportcity the children had been well prepared and could not wait to get running.

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