Project Eden-3rd Annual Midnight Charity Race.

If you were in the area of Lian Hua Shan park at 10.30pm Saturday night, then you would have seen a large number of energetic people in beautifully designed blue T-shirts warming up for the 3^rd Annual Midnight Charity race. The idea of the race is for runners to get together with old and new friends, and raise money for charity at the same time. Well, there were a lot of new friends this year, with 125 runners taking part!  Last year’s event had 52 runners and many were back again to beat their previous race times.

The fundraising goal for this year’s race was 100,000RMB for Captivating Internationals ‘Project Eden’, based in Guangdong Province. This project supports Chinese foster parents who are caring for children from disadvantaged circumstances in a safe and secure environment. Eden is also now home to 9 older girls from Captivating’s program in Qinghai, who are learning Chinese in the local school. You can read more at: http://www.captivating.org/project/details/4

Both the 5k and 10k race kicked off at 11.00pm, eagerly cheered on by supporters and passersby. The atmosphere was electric at the finish line as helpers handed out water to the 10k runners on their first pass through and everyone keen to see the first of the 5k runners come in.

The winner of the 5k women’s event was Claire Taylor (23:05) and Daniel Woslten (25:39) for the men.

The winner of the 10k was Nicolas Rousseau (42:43), second place Patrick Connicker (42:51) and third place Liam Rodden (42:53). The womens 10k winner was Christe Klauberg (48:45), second place Molly McCloskey (52:09) and third place Tasha Van Winkle (52:20).

A lot of runners improved on last years times and even those who walked were nicely surprised with their performance !

A very welcome ‘air-conditioned and free Tsing Tao’ coach waited to take runners and supporters to Rapscallions café and bar, who hosted the prize giving and after race party. Rapscallions donated 10RMB for every Tsing Tao bought and provided great food, a raffle with some special prizes and good fun for the night.

A big THANK YOU to Greg, all the runners, sponsors and helpers for organizing and coming out to raise what ended up being 110,000rmb for a great charity. It was a huge success, so well organized and great fun !  See you all next year.

For more photo’s see:

http://www.shenzhenparty.com/photos/uyu-deg-img-8665jpg

http://www.shenzhen-standard.com/2011/11/15/3rd-annual-midnight-charity-race/