A Shropshire fitness company has chosen Shrewsbury Town in the Community as its charity partner.
Ultimate Fitness Experience, which stages established running events in the county, will be raising funds for the official charity of Shrewsbury Town Football Club.
Popular events, including the annual Mercedes-Benz of Shrewsbury 10K and the Shropshire Mud Run Series, held three times a year, will now benefit the charity.
Simon Macdonald, who runs Ultimate Fitness Experience with Tom Meehan, said: “We have been looking for a charity partner to enable us to make donations on behalf of all the volunteers who help us at events. We have chosen Shrewsbury Town in the Community because they’re involved in sport, fitness and activity, which is what our business is about.
“We are really impressed with just how much they do in the local community, so we thought we would like them to come on board as our charity partner.”
Jamie Edwards, the head of Shrewsbury Town in the Community, said the charity are pleased to have the support of Ultimate Fitness Experience.
“It’s really nice to have another platform to enable more donations to be made to our charity,” added Jamie. “It’s also raising the awareness of what we do as we’re not your average charity that you immediately presume is a charity.
“Having the platform of events like the Shrewsbury 10K will be a fantastic way of being able to do that.
“We are looking for some of our disability participants to be able to take part in the next Shrewsbury 10K.
“Getting fit and healthy through being active is one of the key areas of what we want to do within the local community.”
Simon revealed plans are in place to ensure the popularity of the Shrewsbury 10K, which is next held on Sunday, March 15, 2020, continues to grow.
He said: “Tom and I have been running the 10K around Shrewsbury town centre for four years now. We’re going to cap entries at around 2,250 runners, so it remains a good experience for those taking part.
“It’s been a sell-out every year so far, with half the spaces for the next one already snapped up after we opened entries last month.
“We’re looking forward to working alongside Shrewsbury Town in the Community to introduce a disability run as part of the event, to encourage people who may not otherwise take part to get involved and receive a medal and t-shirt.
“We’ll be doing some fundraising activities around the Shrewsbury 10K and our other events.”
Simon and Tom are currently preparing to host their next Shropshire Mud Run at Eaton Mascott, near Shrewsbury, next month.
A 5K event for runners aged eight and over, together with a 10K event for those aged 16 and over, takes place on Saturday, September 21.
“It’s a 1,000 acre estate, with a 10K obstacle course for the runners,” added Simon. “It’s going to be our biggest Shropshire Mud Run so far, and we’re looking for around 650 entrants.
“This was our first step into the events market and it’s just grown and grown. We’ve introduced obstacles like water slides, head dunks, river crossings and crawling through mud pits. It’s a fun and exciting event, a great family day, while companies also use it as a team building day.”
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