New team helping to make the 2014 Vitality Oxford Half the best one yet!
August 29, 2014 // Rachel Ellis
As some of you may have read, the organisation of the Vitality Oxford Half has been reinforced by the team behind the Vitality Bath Half Marathon. The BATHALF, as it is affectionately known, was expanded over a 5-year period – selling out to 15,000 runners every year and becoming one of the largest fundraising events in the south-west. In 2014 alone the Bath Half runners raised over £2million for over 90 local and national charities.
The race has a loyal following of runners who come back year after year to run in Bath and race day has a really special atmosphere – even when it rains (as it did A LOT this year!)
The team behind the Bath Half – Andrew (Race Director), Mel (Charity & Creative Director), Rhiannon (Event Manager – operations) & Alayne (Race Scretary and customer enquiries) – are now working flat out to help make this year’s Oxford Half a really special day. We’re building on the pioneering work of the event founders in the previous 3 years, as well as addressing problems that occurred at last year’s race.
New for 2014
New title sponsor – like the Bath Half, the Oxford Half has a new title sponsor and is part of the Vitality Run Series – a major new series of eight running events. It’s a fantastic endorsement and recognition for the race to be supported by such a major brand, and included in such a prestigious Run Series. PruHealth Vitality will be bringing colour and branding to the event, they have a brand new online running community and exciting plans to develop great training and nutrition plans as well as exclusive offers and merchandise – watch this space!
BBC Radio Oxford Bannister Mile – 2014 marks the 60th anniversary since Sir Roger Bannister became the first ever man to run a mile in less than four minutes at Oxford University’s Iffley Road track. So this year the course will incorporate a short detour to allow half marathon runners the unique opportunity to run in Bannister’s footsteps with one lap around the track where history was made. Competitors’ results will include both chip timing for the half marathon and the ‘Bannister Mile’.
Course route changes – we’ve made a couple of changes to this year’s course, to accommodate the BBC Radio Oxford Bannister Mile and to remove the section along the dual carriageway following safety concerns last year. Our course measurer Mike Sandford is finalising details and further details will be published shortly.
Expanding the charity scheme – UK races like the Vitality Oxford Half provide a fantastic opportunity for charity fundraising, and we know that many of our runners appreciate being able to fundraise for a charity of their own choice. So this year we’ve introduced a more structured charity programme and are delighted to welcome our new Lead Charity Oxfam UK, Local Charity Helen & Douglas House, and our Run Series Charity Laureus Foundation for Good, plus over 20 other local charities. Look out for our Charity Hall at the Kassam, and cheering points around the course. We will also be using runners donations to fund grants for local community projects through the new Oxford Half Community Fund.
Taking a cautious view on entry numbers – the race expanded rapidly in size in the first three years, but this can produce ‘growing pains’. So we’ve taken a cautious view this year and restricted entries to 6,000 - a modest increase on last year’s 5,500 entries - and a significant number of these extra places have been reserved by the new race charities. Entry sales has been very brisk this year and will be sold out shortly, so if you’re interested in entering this year’s race - don’t delay enter today at www.oxfordhalf.co.uk/entries
Schools Challenge – Breaking News! Watch out for coming announcements of our new Schools Challenge for local primary schools pupils and staff.
New parking arrangements – following problems with parking access into the Kassam Stadium before and after last year’s the event we’ve been looking at how we make sure this doesn’t happen again this year. Access in and out of the stadium is difficult for us to manage as it crosses the road closures for the race and also there aren’t many parking spaces left at the Kassam after we’ve taken out the reserved spaces for the runners assembly, post-finish and medical areas. We’ve looked at various options and decided to encourage participants to use the free Park & Ride facilities at the nearby MINI Plant Oxford (which is unaffected by the road closures) and we will be offering the remaining few parking spaces at the Kassam for pre-purchase through our website at a cost of £5 each. We’ll publicise more details about this shortly, including clearer signage for event parking at both MINI and the Kassam.
Chip timing results – to ensure there will be no delay in receiving your results this year we are working with the UK’s top chip timing company RaceAhead who will be using their latest generation bib chips, as well as offering a free text alert results service.
Runner communication – to ensure runner enquiries are dealt with efficiently we now have a dedicated race secretary who is available Monday – Friday during office hours to answer email and telephone enquiries. Our email is [email protected] or you can use the contact form on our website and telephone number is 01225 422255. This enquiry line will also be staffed on race day
Baggage arrangements – we are reviewing the baggage storage arrangements for our runners at the moment to make sure you won’t have be standing around waiting to get your bag after the race. We’ll let you know what the arrangements are in our runners’ newsletter
Runner feedback – we’re keen to hear your feedback and suggestions on what we can do better, and also what you value about the Oxford Half. So we’ll be introducing a post-race questionnaire for all entrants in this year’s race, and will publish survey results in an annual report. But if you have any constructive feedback based on your experience last year please email your suggestions to [email protected]