PAGEANT - "Education is the future"
Sarah Hayes - Washington Marine Corps 10k
Sarah's Marathons
Sarah ran her first marathon in Stockholm in June 2010. Her fastest marathon to date was in Venice in October 2010, with a time of 4 hours 11 minutes. She has been running marathons and ultra-marathons regularly ever since. (An ultra-marathon is anything over 26.2 miles.) Her first race in which she raised sponsorship for Pageant was the Washington Marine Corps 10km race in October 2009.
Her latest fundraising race for Pageant was the Chester Marathon, in which she set a new Guinness World Record for the Fastest Marathon Dressed as a Bottle (female). Sarah ran many marathons and ultra-marathons preparing for Chester.
Washington Marine Corps 10k Race
Sarah's association with Pageant started with this race, when she raised sponsorship to fund projects at Barra-Essau Upper Basic School in The Gambia. The 34th Marine Corps 10k race took place in Washington DC on Sunday 25 October 2009. This race immediately followed the Marine Corps Marathon, and followed part of the same course through the streets of the United States capital city. Sarah has had a close association with Barra-Essau UBS for some time and continues to help this school in many ways. See more details on Sarah's main page.
Preparations
Sarah did quite a bit of hill training in Italy, including an ascent of Montecorona, near Umbertide in Umbria, running a steep 11.75 km in 78 minutes in 90 degree heat. Ouch!! She then ran the races listed below in preparation for the Marine Corps race:
Sarah in the Great Edinburgh Run
- 11 May - Great Edinburgh Run in a time of 64 minutes for the 10km distance.
- 28 June - Lordshill 10k [Southampton] in a time of 56 mins 34 secs.
- 5 July - City of Manchester 10k in a time of 54 mins 12 secs [Sarah's personal best!]
- 12 July - ASICS London 10k in a time of 56 mins 51 secs, slower than she expected, because she got stuck in a crowd of 27,000 runners!!!
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15 August - London Pride 10 [Hackney] in a time of 55 mins* and came 5th in her class.
(*time from line to line as recorded by Sarah. Official time of 56:30 is from gun to scanning a chip, with delays at both ends) - 22 August - Birchwood 10K, [Warrington] with a chip time of 53 mins 51 secs - a new personal best.
- 6 September - BUPA Great Yorkshire Run [Sheffield] with a chip time of 53 mins 41 secs - shaving 10 secs off her personal best! Sarah was 8th out of 90 in her category [females 50-55].
- 12 September - Marple 10k 'Trail' run [Cheshire] Organised by the Marple Firemen and sponsored by the Ring of Bells pub. Sarah's time was 49 mins 59 secs, breaking the 50 minute barrier for the first time.
- 4 October - Manchester Tree-Athlon 5K in 23 mins 43 secs.
- 11 October - Yorkshire Coast 10K in a new personal best chip time 49 mins 18 secs. Sarah won her category.
The Big Race
Sarah completed the 10k race with a chip time of 49 mins 18 secs, equalling her personal best. She came 7th out of 203 in her division. She already had pledges of support from around the world, and then raised an amazing total of £1470 through Pageant. Below are some of Sarah's pictures of the race:
Guess who saw Sarah of
the nerves are showing
the starting gun is bigger than usual
done it! Sarah after the race
the Marines who looked after Sarah and the other runners
Sarah's final sponsorship total was £1535.
Barra-Essau UBS have spent this money on new classroom benches,
upgrading the staff room and the library (new table, flooring,
ceiling, chairs for the former and new
flooring, ceiling and bookshelves for the latter) and several sets
of strip for school football and athletics teams, footballs and some
tracksuits for the PE staff.
Mr Jallow, the Barra-Essau UBS headmaster emailed us:
"The athletes performed well (at the Schools National Championship)
for the first time in the history of the school, 2nd in the region
and 13th nationally. Everybody is happy about the jerseys even the
villagers. To inform you, the school will host the football gala in
June 2010. Say hi to Sarah and family and inform her about the
performance of the school.