My name is Maria and I ran a 10k at Regent’s park at the end of April. I wanted to share my story for the [RunThrough] blog.
I signed up for the run a while back but then on Friday before the actual race I started getting second thoughts. I used to run 10k regularly, but my last 10k was in August 2020. I had a baby in 2021 and my life has mostly been focused around taking care of him. I felt terribly underprepared and ready to quit. But quitting is dreadful and not fun, so I decided to do something productive instead.
I’m originally from Russia and horrified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As you know, the Russian government has started a terrible war in Ukraine and many people were forced to flee their homes and are in need of help and support. I started a fundraiser for my run and managed to collect £655 in just 24 hours! This money will go towards helping Ukrainian refugees.
The gratitude for the people who donated to my fundraiser helped me run the race in the same time as I did in 2020 – which is a huge win for me personally. People from Russia, the UK, the US and Australia all contributed to help. This makes me believe that kindness will prevail and the war will be over soon!
Below is a picture of me at the race, sporting a Ukrainian flag ribbon as a sign of support.
For more information, please visit this link – https://helpingtoleave.org/en
These people are raising funds to help Ukrainians flee the war zone.
