Runway marathon raises £54,000

For the fifth year in a row, 400 colleagues across Team Heathrow took off down the runway in our Midnight Marathon event.

The event saw teams of 12 people run a relay with each runner completing 2.2 miles, almost the full length of the runway, and each team running a full marathon distance combined.

Over £54,000 (and rising) was raised through the event to go to Care International, Heathrow Community Fund and Duke of Edinburgh.

The fastest relay teamm nade up of colleagues who work at Atkins, completed the event in 3 hours and 13 seconds.

A number of other runners also took part in a fun run section that participants were able to run as many runway lengths as possible within the time allowed.

The 5th Heathrow Midnight Marathon

This is the 5th Heathrow Midnight Marathon event held with organisations from across the airport including Mace, Atkins, American Airlines, London Ambulance Service and many more.

It’s not just action on the runway either, with colleague bands playing and other entertainment going on inside Terminal 5 while the runners wait for their turn and the race to end.

A run with unique challenges…

Setting up a charity run on one of Europe’s busiest runways was no easy task for our event organisers. Due to the need to keep the runway operational for the last night-time flights (circa 11.30pm) and have it back operational by 4.30am – the entire event, including set-up and clean up, had to take place within a narrow window.

Given the strict time and security regulations that had to be observed, the event would not have been possible without the great contributions of not only a number of Heathrow colleagues but also a number of other companies.

Following the event, the event equipment (timing gates etc) was removed from the runway and a full runway scan was conducted to ensure no objects were left on the runway and safe operations could resume on the runway in time for the first arrivals.