LYR News

For the first time London Youth Rowing have a team of 7 runners competing at the Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday 14 October. A group of friends, family and supporters have signed up for the iconic race around London’s world-famous landmarks to raise money for programmes to reach London’s most disadvantaged communities.

The combined target is £2,500 as LYR target more events to boost fundraising and income generation over the next few years. Leading the way in her fundraising campaign is Cathy Constable hitting £540 with a week to go.

David Tinnion, Chief Operations Officer at LYR will be running his fifth half marathon including the Royal Parks Half Marathon last year. He will be running alongside his wife Hester, supported by his two young boys Joseph and Freddie. His favourite training run is Brockwell Park in south London that he describes as “a gem of a park, with a few cheeky hills thrown in for good measure!”.

Cathy Constable, is looking forward to giving back to the charity that introduced her son Bo to rowing at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This year he enjoyed a very successful summer racing with Globe Juniors at Henley Royal Regatta, winning at the British Championships and representing GB against France and winning Gold! The whole family have now tried rowing, Bo plus his two younger sisters and parents have all done a taster session. Cathy is delighted to have reached 10 miles last weekend having taken up running to complete the challenge of a half marathon.

Michael Shears was encouraged to run his first half marathon by his wife Hannah, Programme Director for Active Row, the flagship programme at LYR. He works at AEW Europe and convinced his colleague Nick Winsley to sign up and create some healthy competition in the office. He says “This is my first and last half marathon! I’m really pleased to have raised £500 already, hopefully I can hit £700. My target is around 1 hour 45, I’ve managed 11 miles which seemed like a long way!”

Nick Winsley is running his first half marathon but has the experience of running a full marathon in London in 2008. His favourite training run is along the river in Kew and has completed a 16km run in preparation for the race.

Francesca Lowe has been supported directly by LYR as a Junior at Thames Rowing Club for 5 years. She says, “in the past I’ve done cake sales with the club to raise money for LYR, I would love to run a PB this Sunday so I’m aiming for under 1 hour 46. My first half marathon was in April.”

To follow the progress of the LYR team check out @LYRowing on twitter and to donate visit: Virgin Money Giving and add the name of the runner you would like to support.

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