London Landmarks Half Marathon – 1st August 2021
Sunday 1st August 2021 will be remembered as a historic day for our community for many years to come. It was the first-time Stanmore Jafferys as a club took runners to a half marathon event.
Having only been established just over 12 months ago, SJ Running has now become a force to be reckoned with as we worked together to deliver a programme to support our members in running the London Landmarks Half Marathon.
Training began for some before Ramadhan and for some not until after the Holy Month. Each individual working hard alongside our dedicated coordinators to prepare themselves for what would be a gruelling 13.1 mile run.
The day itself began with trepidation and nervousness – how will I fare? Will I make it? What will it be like? These were some of the questions going through the runners’ minds as they lined up at the start each with their own determination to complete the run.
After seeing them off, the loyal band of SJ and WiH supporters proceeded to Mile 5 where they greeted the relentless runners with cheers and smiles. The runners pushed on from there with grit and resolve and once again met the supporting team at Mile 13 where they triumphantly crossed the finish line exhausted but elated with their efforts!
The runners not only endured a 13.1 mile run but – in collaboration with Who Is Hussain – raised over £75,000 to help fund life-saving heart surgeries for impoverished children in Iraq & India. May Allah (SWT) reward all these runners for their efforts.
Looking back, the runners devoted 3 months to training and fundraising for this event. Getting married, childcare or adverse weather didn’t affect their training. They took everything in their stride and came out as winners. Seeing their progress from day 1 to the race day is inspirational and motivational – bearing in mind that some of them had not run at all 3 months ago.
A special thanks goes to Sakina Sidik, Tarannam Khaku and Khairunnisa (Kayla) Black for taking countless hours out of their days and weeks to prepare and train the runners for their monumental effort. Come rain or shine, the coordinators were there assisting the ladies with running and dietary tips and Tarannam even ran the last half a mile with them crossing the finish line together! The success and plaudits belong not only to the runners but to the coordinators as well.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors, Deitch Cooper and SME IT Networks, and all of our supporters throughout this journey.
The runners, coordinators, SJ Chairlady (Samina Govani) and SJ Vice Chairlady (Gulshan Walji) gathered for dinner at Manoush in Harrow a few days after the run to recognise the achievements and celebrate the success of the runners as well as brainstorm how to get more members of the community involved in running.
We hope that this will inspire more of you to get involved and take on new challenges. We welcome runners of all abilities (whether that’s brand new or seasoned) SJ sessions and we look forward to see you join us for LLHM next year!
Click below to read some of the runners’ journeys
Runners' Journeys
