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About 20,000 runners to join Kenya's first lady for marathon

Xinhua, March 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

About 20,000 athletes will on Sunday join Kenya's First Lady Margaret Kenyatta for the second edition of the Half Marathon which shall take place on the same day as the International Women's Day celebrations in Nairobi.

The marathon is aimed at raising awareness and funds to increase support for maternal, newborn and child health in all the 47 counties in a campaign dubbed "Beyond Zero Campaign".

Through the initiative, Margaret seeks to mobilize resources for the purchase of mobile clinics to augment the existing health services and therefore make health care accessible to underprivileged Kenyans throughout the country.

This year's marathon has registered twice as many participants as last year's event which saw over 10,000 entrants take part in the inaugural marathon event.

Notable elite athletes such as Abel Kirui and Lorna Kiplagat are among those who have confirmed participation in the marathon.

Organizers said on Saturday that races are scheduled to be flagged off at 6.30am for the wheel chair and tri-cycle races categories which feature in the marathon for the first time.

The 21 kms race will be flagged off at 7.00am followed by the 10 kms race at 7.45am and finally the 2kms Family Fun run event which shall be flagged off at 9.00am.

"Margaret is scheduled to take part in the 21kms race following her extensive training routine that has seen her and her team travel to high altitude training zones in readiness for the race event," read the statement issued by the organizers.

A total prize purse of 62,000 dollars will be on offer this Sunday.

Both the men and women winners of the 21km races will run away with 8,240 dollars while both the men and women winners of the 10km races will run away with 2,750 dollars each.

Margaret has urged Kenyans to partner with her in the noble cause by championing the agenda in the counties and participating in the awareness campaign to raise adequate funds to sustain the programme.

The "Beyond Zero campaign" targets the government, development partners and Kenyans to mobilize resources to fund pre-natal and post-natal access by those who cannot afford the services. Endi