Date published: 05 March 2015 by Jessica Homer

With more than 35,000 runners taking part, the London Marathon is the largest single fundraising event in the world. Each year the event tops most runner’s wish lists, and importantly, it raises over £40m for charity.

It’s the biggest event in our sports events calendar. On 26 April our staff, volunteers, runners, and their families and friends, will have an unforgettable day. The London Marathon, however, is more than just one day, it’s a journey, and one that has already begun. In this series of blog posts, we will share with you just what it takes to get to this iconic event, from behind the scenes information, to our celebrity runners, and a first look at our new running vests. You will get the inside scoop on what our events team and runners do to prepare for the big day.

Rainbow Trust will have over 50 runners taking part this year, with the aim of raising a total of £100,000 to help support families with a seriously ill child. Our events team is on hand to support the runners every step of the way. Our runners have benefited from professional marathon training sessions with former GB triathlete and friend of Rainbow Trust, Ralph Hydes, which besides for the obvious benefit of fantastic training, gives our runners an opportunity to meet their team mates which really builds up a feeling of comradery come marathon day. We are on hand to offer inspirational fundraising advice whenever it is needed and pride ourselves on our race day team of exceptional cheerleaders who will be cheering the team on at several points along the route, all the way to our fun post-race reception!

“The entire experience will stay with me for the rest of my life. The support I received from Rainbow Trust was unrelenting and immeasurable, and I am still so grateful for it.”

Rosie, part of the 2013 Rainbow Trust Team.

The infamous ballot

Securing your place in the London Marathon isn’t as simple as deciding you want to do it. Entries are placed into a ballot and it is notoriously difficult to secure a Golden Bond place with thousands of entries received each year. Another way of securing your place is to run for charity, which means you buy your place and commit to a fundraising target for your chosen cause. The Rainbow Trust team is made up of both charity place and own place runners and although our charity places are now sold out, we welcome any own place runners to join the team. If you know anyone with their own place and they would like to run for Rainbow Trust, please let us know.

Over the next two months I will be posting regularly to tell you all about our journey to the London Marathon. This will be the second time I am experiencing the build up to our biggest event and I am really excited to help to support our runners and make the 2015 Virgin Money London Marathon a huge success for Rainbow Trust. If you would like to join us on the day to cheer our runners on, do get in touch. The London Marathon really is a team effort!

Maxine Edwards, Events Promotions Manager