NEW-LOOK GREAT BIRMINGHAM RUN HALF MARATHON TO SET OFF FROM NEW STREET ON SUNDAY New route returns to popular Cannon Hill Park and Bournville Thousands to run for charity or personal lifestyle goals Corporate teams battle for trophies in ENGIE Business Challenge Half marathon runners, are you ready? This year’s Simplyhealth Great Birmingham Run is just days away. The biggest 13.1-mile run in the Midlands takes place on Sunday, October 13, and will see thousands of participants set off from New Street in Birmingham city centre to raise funds for charity, beat a personal best time, or meet a healthy lifestyle goal. The Great Birmingham Run features a new and improved route for 2019, passing the famous Rotunda, Selfridges and St Martin’s Church before taking runners along Pershore Road and into south Birmingham. Following previous years’ half marathons, the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham Run will begin its return to the city centre when it reaches the 6-mile mark at the picture-postcard suburb of Bournville, a favourite spot for spectators to cheer on family and friends. The new route sees a return to some of the event’s most popular running locations of past years, including Cannon Hill Park at 9 miles; considered one of the most beautiful open spaces in Birmingham, and world-famous Edgbaston Stadium at the 10-mile mark; the scene for some of English cricket’s most memorable matches. The event features the ENGIE Business Challenge, which pits work teams against each other for fastest-time trophies and bragging rights in the corporate world. The Business Challenge is the perfect team-building exercise and can help companies raise vital funds for foundations or CSR projects. ENGIE provides energy and services to a growing number of businesses and communities across Birmingham and the West Midlands. One of these is a long-standing partnership with Birmingham City Council, delivering low carbon energy across the city, playing a pivotal role in the city's climate change strategy. Among ENGIE’s 20-strong team running on Sunday is CEO Nicola Lovett, who said: “I’m really excited to be taking part in the ENGIE Business Challenge at the Great Birmingham Run, where I will be running alongside 20 colleagues raising money for our ENGIE Chosen Charities Macmillan, Mind and The Princes’ Trust.” A Midlands dad whose daughter was born with a rare heart condition will be taking part in Sunday’s Great Birmingham Run to raise money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity. Mark Husbands, 36, from Ross-On-Wye, is gearing up to run the half marathon course to say thank you to the hospital where his daughter Holly, seven, received three life-saving operations after she was born with a congenital heart defect. “The doctors and nurses at Birmingham Children’s Hospital have given Holly a new lease of life and saying thank you just doesn’t seem enough. “I recently took up running again with my local church group and I’ve planned a series of half marathons and challenge runs for the next year. I ran the Birmingham 10k for the charity earlier in the year and just thought running the Great Birmingham Run – in the same city Holly was treated – would be a poignant tribute to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.” It’s not only mums and dads who will get the chance to run the streets of Birmingham city centre on Sunday. The Simplyhealth Junior and Mini Great Birmingham Run takes place on the same day as the half marathon, meaning the whole family can enjoy a full day of sporting activity and celebrate in style with a finisher’s medal. The 1.5k Mini Run is open to children between the ages of 3-8, while the 2.5k Junior Run is open to 9-16 year-olds. All finishers receive a medal to show off at school or to friends. More than 120 children from Nishkam Primary School in Handsworth, Birmingham, and Nishkam Trust School in Wolverhampton will be wearing the red tee-shirts of city charity Zero Hunger with Langar at the Mini Run, to help the charity’s mission to improve quality of life around the world. ‘Langar’ is the concept of providing free compassionate food for all people, regardless of faith, gender, age or social status. Kate Thornton, Chief Customer Officer for Simplyhealth says: “We’re delighted to be back in Birmingham for the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham Run. The Junior and Mini Great Run is sure to be a highlight of the day. “This year, we’re proud to have Diabetes UK as our official charity partner for the Series as this enables us to continue our great work in supporting people with their health. Good luck to everyone taking part and we look forward to seeing you all at the finish line to celebrate your amazing achievements.” Roads will be closed on Sunday, October 13th, to allow all participants and spectators to enjoy the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham Run in safety. To find out which roads are closed and the times they re-open visit greatrun.org/great-birmingham-run/event-info The 2020 Great Birmingham 10k and Great Birmingham Run will open for entry at 10am on Sunday 13 October. For more information visit greatrun.org. –ENDS– Notes to Editors About The Great Run Company The Great Run Series is the world’s favourite run with over 230,000 participants a year taking part. The events programme stretches across the UK from Aberdeen to Portsmouth offering a full range of distances from 5k through to the half marathon. A full range of online training services are available from Great Run Training. Great Run Local is a series of weekly events staged in our key cities. All designed to provide the support and advice for participants of all abilities to achieve their personal goal. To find out more about the events and services provided by Great Run and its partners visit www.greatrun.org Great Run, the world’s favourite run. About Simplyhealth Since our creation in 1872, we have existed to help people get the healthcare they need when they need it. We do this by developing products and services to help customers manage their health; by recognising how we can meet unmet healthcare needs in the long term through our charitable activities; and by responding to public policy developments in the nation’s health landscape to promote good, sustainable health outcomes for the many across local communities. We are the leading provider of health plans, dental plans and pet health plans, and we support individuals and health professionals directly as well as working with thousands of employers to help them support the health and wellbeing of their workforces. We’re proud to donate 10% of our pre-tax profits to health-related charities every year, and this amounted to over £1 million in 2017. Our Simplyhealth Great Run Series partnership raised an additional £42.6 million for charity. Our charity partner for the 2018 Great Run Series is mental health charity Mind. We strongly believe that movement and activity is the cornerstone to better health and we’ll be supporting runners and supporters every step of the way on their Simplyhealth Great Run journey. Simplyhealth is a trading name of Simplyhealth Access, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. For further information, please visit: www.simplyhealth.co.uk. .