Sunday’s Melbourne Marathon Festival saw thousands of Flight Centre Active runners taking to the streets to run in red.
From the 5.7km* run to the full 42.2km marathon, and the 10km and 21.1km distances in between, many people travelled to participate in the iconic event with Flight Centre actually sponsoring the half marathon where 11,000 spots sold out.
Congrats to the 1st, 2nd & 3rd place winners in the #melbmara @flightcentreau #HalfMarathon! http://t.co/9oKc7ssrL0 pic.twitter.com/Z62bI9OX2K
— FC Active Travel (@fcactivetravel) October 12, 2014
If you participated in @melb_marathon, another event, or had a big training session… http://t.co/1B28zPF1bf pic.twitter.com/g0ekyNOYhc
— FC Active Travel (@fcactivetravel) October 12, 2014
Female participants showed that girls do run the world, with females making up 51% of all finishers across the day (in all events), and a record breaking 54.7% participating in the Flight Centre Active Travel Half Marathon, up from 42.1% in 2007.
The full marathon distance also demonstrated its popularity, attracting 6,870 participants – the most for any marathon in Australia. And that wasn’t the only record that was broken.
The Flight Centre group of companies had the most corporate entries, with just under 400 Flight Centre staff participating across the 4 distances. Each Flight Centre staff entry raised money to the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, with them collectively donating $16,000.
In addition to staff participation, and helping other amateur runners with their travel and accommodation requirements for the race, they also assisted in bringing 5 professional Kenyan runners to Australia to compete in the marathon and Flight Centre Active Travel Half Marathon.
All 5 Kenyan runners that Flight Centre sponsored ended up as medalists. The first being Dominic Ondoro who won the mens’ marathon with a course record time of 2:10:47. Our other Kenyan marathoner Dominic Kimwetich came third with a time of 02:11:56.
The Flight Centre Active Travel Half Marathon was won by their Kenyan runner Wilfred Murgor in another course record time of 61:57, and Daniel Cheruiyot Yegon in second place with a time of 01:03:34.
The womens’ Half Marathon distance was won by Nikki Chapple with another course record time of 71:23.
Competition director Tim Crosbie said after the event:
“It’s really great to have an active sponsor involved in the event. The event organisers, as well as the Kenyan runners, are really appreciative of the support Flight Centre Active Travel have provided in bringing them here to compete. They’re really happy, and as you can see from the results, their performance rates are great,”.
If you’re looking for a new active challenge, check out Flight Centre Active’s running and marathon packages, or perhaps consider tackling a new active challenge with a triathlon or Ironman event, or cycling or trekking holiday.
Congrats to our ops manager who ran her first #HalfMarathon today in prep for @nycmarathon! http://t.co/pZ0e3X0vhv pic.twitter.com/uBPGAzCTDz
— FC Active Travel (@fcactivetravel) October 12, 2014