For the last 15 years, a group of lunchtime runners has been taking to the streets of Geneva WHO’s message of the health benefits of exercise. In addition, the WHO Runners have run an average of one marathon per year since 1996 and, as a result, have managed to raise more than CHF 75,000 for worthwhile causes. We interviewed Philip Jenkins, one of the Runners, to find out how it all started and how the scheme has managed to raise so much money.
When did you start running?
It was in my secondary school in England where every Wednesday for
6 weeks we had to do cross-country running. I wasn’t especially good
at it and really didn’t much enjoy it. I particularly remember the agony
of the annual school cross-country race.
How did the idea of associating running with fund-raising come
about?
Before I joined WHO, I was teaching biology in Plymouth, England.
The school was sorely in need of a minibus to transport pupils for field
trips and sports fixtures. This was 1983 and the first
Plymouth Marathon was about to be run. It seemed a
worthwhile challenge, so three of us teachers
decided to enter. We all completed the marathon and
managed to raise a tidy sum for the minibus fund.
Is the idea of running marathons in support of
charities now widespread?
It is in Britain and some other countries. For example, the
London Marathon raises millions of pounds each year for
a vast range of worthwhile causes. However, the idea is
still not a familiar one in this area. When we talk about
raising money via marathons (we try to avoid the term
sponsorship), people say: «Oh, so the money will go to pay
for the marathon entry fee or flight to the venue». No! All
the money always goes directly to the cause we are supporting,
and we avoid having any intermediates.
The training for a marathon must be long and
intensive.
Yes, if you are hoping to win or break a world
record! Our ambitions are more modest. We run
about three times a week all year round, so having
this sound basic fitness level means that preparing for a marathon just involves intensifying the training over a 3-month
period and including one long run per week.
Is it possible to fit regular running into a busy working day?
The obstacles seem insurmountable but in fact they are not. The
majority of WHO Runners run at lunchtime. It just requires a little
organization. Starting work slightly earlier in the morning and finishing
a little later in the evening frees up the hour or so needed for running
and showering afterwards.
Does running help your WHO work?
Most definitely. The human body has not evolved to spend eight hours
a day sitting in front of a computer, and
probably never will. An hour at lunchtime
spent doing something completely different,
breathing fresh woodland or lakeside
air, is the perfect antidote to office stress.
The benefits are undoubtedly mental as
well as physical. So often the solution to a
problem that one has been wrestling with
all morning suddenly becomes apparent
after a lunchtime run.
Which marathons have been the most
enjoyable?
Since 1996, we have run an average of one
marathon per year. Although they are all
precisely 42 km and 185 metres long, each
one, Dublin, Berlin, Florence, Geneva, has
been special in a different way. London
and New York were spectacular for scale
and the enormous crowds of spectators;
running beside the sea in the Monaco
Marathon must win the prize for natural
beauty; Venice was memorable for its 13
bridges in the last 3 km and Athens for its
finish in the magnificent 2500-year-old stadium.
But the medal for conviviality certainly
goes to the Médoc (Bordeaux)
Marathon for its array of gastronomic distractions,
including oysters and white wine
at km 37!
What sort of causes has the marathon
running supported?
Each marathon has helped to support a different
cause. Often the money raised has gone to
help handicapped children. For instance, we
have supported children in an orphanage in
Phnom Penh and in a rehabilitation centre in
Hosanna, Ethiopia and helped to supply artificial
limbs for children maimed by anti-personnel
mines, one of the most horrific inventions of
mankind. Other support has been given to an
AIDS Care Centre in Durban, to a maternity hospital
in Somalia, to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital
to help repair childbirth damage, to a clinic
in the Turkana area of Kenya, and to provide
schooling for street children in the Philippines.
Your final thoughts?
Running has so much in its favour: it is a very natural activity, it costs
very little, and it is very motivating because you feel you are doing
something positive for your health. In addition, marathon running provides
a precise personal challenge while helping, through fund-raising,
some of the least favoured of humanity.
I am now retiring from WHO, though not from running, and I sincerely
hope that someone (who does not need to be a marathon runner) will
take over the organization of the fundraising and keep the ball rolling.
I can be contacted at jenkinsp@who.int.
