Go, Gavin!

Sunday 21 June 2020

Deputy Gavin St Pier will be leaving his suit at home today, trying to ignore any rumours about new covid cases, and definitely avoiding his loft which needs clearing out, as he instead pulls on his trainers and goes for a run to raise money for charities and organisations affected by the corona virus pandemic.

The Father's Day Half Marathon was due to be staged today, with hundreds of people training for the 13.1mile challenge including Deputy St Pier.

While the vast majority of the other runners will be staying at home today after the event was postponed, Deputy St Pier is running the course - from L'eree to town, anyway, accompanied by his friend Steve Falla.

Both men have been training for the half marathon - with Steve having running it previously, as well as completing the London Marathon and other shorter races.

8.5 miles with @gavinstpier this morning, touching five parishes, in preparation for next week’s half marathon fundraiser #guernseytogether #runningcommentary https://t.co/pBoJTj2VoL pic.twitter.com/SFLxDra8yK

— Steve Falla (@steve_falla) June 14, 2020

Deputy St Pier said he decided to run the course even though the event has been postponed to raise money for charity.

"Obviously, at the time I made the decision I didn't know that we'd be moving to phase 5 and therefore group events are theoretically permissible. It has been postponed, we're going to run the course anyway. I'm going to run it to raise money for the two appeal funds. I'm not a particularly great distance runner, I've only done one half marathon before, but I'll give it a go and see what happens."

The two appeal funds Deputy St Pier references, are the Social Investment Fund’s Covid-19 Community Charity Appeal and the States of Guernsey’s Covid-19 Response Appeal. Information on both can be found HERE. 

Pictured: You can sponsor Deputy Gavin St Pier and Steve Falla HERE. 

Other people are also expected to be running the 13.1 mile course from L'eree, along the west and north coasts and in to town, after training through the winter and spring for today's planned race.

That includes Kim Polls who is fundraising for the GSPCA. To donate towards Kim’s run click HERE. 

For most other runners the date to run this year's half marathon is now Sunday 6 September.

The organisers and sponsor of this year's Butterfield Half Marathon have reopened event entries today, from 09:00, so anyone who hadn't yet signed up for the original date can now secure their place.

The entry numbers will be capped at 800 and 300 people have already reserved their number.

To register for the Butterfield Half Marathon on 6 September, click HERE.

Pictured top: Deputy Gavin St Pier and Steve Falla (inset). Main image provided by Chris George.