Biking, Boxing & Buzzing Bees!

Biking, Boxing & Buzzing Bees!

Well it’s nearly 12 months since the launch of the Running Bee Foundation and it’s been a real joy as an ambassador to see how much the running community has taken the cause into their hearts! At the Tour of Tameside I spotted lots of runners proudly wearing their Running Bee vests and of course MO our mascot bee enjoying every minute of the events! I am so excited to see the opportunities that Running Bee will bring to local people.

I have been able to visit some primary schools in the last few months and tell them all about the Running Bee Foundation, (and hand out some mascot bees which the children absolutely loved!) I visited Arlies primary school in Stalybridge who took part in the Dr Ron Hill 7 mile challenge in the build up to the Tour of Tameside, the children told me all about Dr Ron and about how they’d achieved their 7 mile challenge! They were so enthusiastic and it was just brilliant to see children so excited about taking part in physical activity – exactly we hope to encourage!

Of course the Running Bee Foundation isn’t just about getting children active though, it is for everyone! In April we held a spinathon event for adults at Hatton health and fitness in Hyde to get ready for the Tour of Tameside. It was a brilliant night where everyone worked really hard but we had great fun too! Then we have just held two Boxing Bee events, first in August at Total Fitness in Walkden, and just this week at Virgin Active on Salford Quays. The sessions were non-contact and involved lots of fun drills for everyone to take part in…and Mo the mascot bee of course joined in to offer some support and unusual boxing moves! It was great to see everyone getting stuck in and having a go at all the combinations even if they had never tried boxing before!

A huge thanks to everybody who took part, each event was free and as well as promoting the amazing cause of The Running Bee Foundation, they were also aimed at getting people together to celebrate the gift of exercise and enjoy some fun physical activity. We hear so often about how exercise is good for us that we can forget that it’s more than a meme on Instagram or a Monday motivation quote on twitter…in reality it truly is a huge part of our wellbeing both physically and mentally. I don’t know where I’d be without exercise/sport in my life, it is my outlet, my medicine, my safe space and so much more! I really hope that through our funding, encouragement and work at the Running Bee Foundation we can encourage many more people to discover the true joy of physical activity and all that it can give us.

Goodbye for now friends… jog on, cycle on, swim on, box on, and everything in between until next time! Hope to see some of you at the Salford 10k this Sunday!

Stacey ?