15th Edition of Safaricom Marathon Launched

February 25th, 2014…The 15th Edition of the Safaricom marathon will take place this year on the 28th June 2014 at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. The race will not only have the traditional 42km full marathon, 21km half marathon and the 5km children’s fun race but will include the 14 to 17 years old race.

This year’s marathon whose theme is ‘15 years of transforming lives’ is expected to attract over 1,000 participants, both local and international. Safaricom Marathon has grown in stature and size for the last 14 years to become one of the 10 "must do" marathons and the toughest in the world.

The organizers who include Tusk Trust, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Safaricom will this year target to collect Kshs 50 million. Last year, Kshs 36.8 Million was collected from the event.

Speaking during the launch, Safaricom’s Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said “Funds from the Safaricom Marathon have continued to provide significant economic and social support to the Lewa community; To date we have invested over Kes.336 million in educational programmes, community development, healthcare and economic empowerment by enabling the setting up of 26 wildlife conservancies that are run by members of the community around Lewa”

He added, “I am very delighted to celebrate 15 years of excellence for the Safaricom Marathon as we strive to transform the lives of the communities around the Conservancy. This year, our target in regard to participants is capped at 1200 runners. So we encourage more people to fundraise by paying beyond the registration fee through corporate teams who always do the fundraising for this worthy cause”. Since inception in the year 2000, the marathon has raised over Ksh300 Million, which have been used to support various community initiatives around wildlife conservation that include education, health, water projects among others.

Last year, Safaricom Marathon raised $423,000 (about Kshs.36.8 Million) which has been allocated to various projects. Lewa conservancy received about Kshs 13 Million of the total collection with education and health projects receiving Kshs 4 Million and Kshs 3 Million respectively. 
Other projects that benefited include: Northern Range Trust, Ngare Ndare Forest Trust and Borana Conservancy among others.

Speaking on behalf of the organizers, the Chief Executive Officer of the Tusk Trust, Charlie Mayhew, said one of the biggest challenges that the conservancy still faces is poaching which has put unprecedented pressure on resources.

“Last year in December we lost two Rhinos to poachers and we have since intensified efforts to weed out poachers. We are working closely with the communities to ensure the vice is alleviated once and for all. We are grateful to our partners that today, 15 years down the line the Lewa conservancy still stands as one of the most iconic tourist attractions”

Registration to the Safaricom Marathon will open from 25th February 2014 and will close on Thursday 1st May 2014. 

February 25th, 2014…The 15th Edition of the Safaricom marathon will take place this year on the 28th June 2014 at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. The race will not only have the traditional 42km full marathon, 21km half marathon and the 5km children’s fun race but will include the 14 to 17 years old race.

This year’s marathon whose theme is ‘15 years of transforming lives’ is expected to attract over 1,000 participants, both local and international. Safaricom Marathon has grown in stature and size for the last 14 years to become one of the 10 "must do" marathons and the toughest in the world.

The organizers who include Tusk Trust, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Safaricom will this year target to collect Kshs 50 million. Last year, Kshs 36.8 Million was collected from the event.

Speaking during the launch, Safaricom’s Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said “Funds from the Safaricom Marathon have continued to provide significant economic and social support to the Lewa community; To date we have invested over Kes.336 million in educational programmes, community development, healthcare and economic empowerment by enabling the setting up of 26 wildlife conservancies that are run by members of the community around Lewa”

He added, “I am very delighted to celebrate 15 years of excellence for the Safaricom Marathon as we strive to transform the lives of the communities around the Conservancy. This year, our target in regard to participants is capped at 1200 runners. So we encourage more people to fundraise by paying beyond the registration fee through corporate teams who always do the fundraising for this worthy cause”. Since inception in the year 2000, the marathon has raised over Ksh300 Million, which have been used to support various community initiatives around wildlife conservation that include education, health, water projects among others.

Last year, Safaricom Marathon raised $423,000 (about Kshs.36.8 Million) which has been allocated to various projects. Lewa conservancy received about Kshs 13 Million of the total collection with education and health projects receiving Kshs 4 Million and Kshs 3 Million respectively. 
Other projects that benefited include: Northern Range Trust, Ngare Ndare Forest Trust and Borana Conservancy among others.

Speaking on behalf of the organizers, the Chief Executive Officer of the Tusk Trust, Charlie Mayhew, said one of the biggest challenges that the conservancy still faces is poaching which has put unprecedented pressure on resources.

“Last year in December we lost two Rhinos to poachers and we have since intensified efforts to weed out poachers. We are working closely with the communities to ensure the vice is alleviated once and for all. We are grateful to our partners that today, 15 years down the line the Lewa conservancy still stands as one of the most iconic tourist attractions”

Registration to the Safaricom Marathon will open from 25th February 2014 and will close on Thursday 1st May 2014.