The marathon, which commenced by the Parliament building in Belgrade was started by one of the best athletes of the 20th century, Carl Lewis, alongside the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić, the President of Belgrade Marathon Ltd Aleksandar Saša Đorđević, and the Ambassador of the European Union in Belgrade, Vincent Degert, who then joined in the marathon.
Runners for BELhospice congregated at the BEL tent at 9am ready for the team photo. The atmosphere was electric with a mix of excitement and nervousness from the runners, many of whom had not run in an event such as this before.
The runners came from a variety of places to support the event, whilst many were local Serbians, others joined the team from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Iceland, France and the United States of America.
It was exciting to see so many people willing to support and raise funds for BELHospice, and the BEL team was the biggest team running on the day. Everywhere you looked, whether it be in the marathon, the half marathon or the 5km race, you could see people running in the team shirt, running for BEL, but most importantly, running to help raise the profile of palliative care within Serbia as well as running to raise funds for BELhospice itself.
Jo Baskott, from Oxford Policy Management working on an EU project with BELhospice to develop palliative care in Serbia, commented: “It was a great experience to run in Belgrade, but what made it even more special was to run for BELhospice and to support their pioneering work in palliative care in Serbia.”
The marathon commenced at 10 o’clock with the 5km race starting at 10.05 – it was unexpectedly a glorious summer day with temperatures around 25C. With the race taking place in the heat of the day, the winner of the Marathon – Kenya’s Edwin Kiplagat Kitum who speaks very little English- kept saying how hot it had been and that it was a tough course.
The heat made it hard for many people, however, the runners were determined to get round and at the finish of the race were greeted at the BELHospice tent by a team of masseurs, plenty of drinks for rehydration and food, and of course the BELHospice team to celebrate their success.
BELhospice is the first specialised charity organisation in Serbia that provides palliative care and an event such as this has done much to raise the profile of palliative care in Serbia and indeed of BELhospice. Plans are already in place for supporting the marathon again next year and it is hoped that next years event will be as successful as this one.
Leave a Reply