We received the Invitation and it was the 8th event race invitation in a week, we were not too interested as every reason all the event organizers listed were synonymous. It was also the first time we got to hear from Bestmed but Bafihlile Mokoena was just not going to let the invite stall and that got us interested.
Friday, 17 February and we were at the Time Out Cafe, High Performance Centre (hpc), UP Sport Campus to attend the Press Dinner. The dinner was a bit unpacked and not engaging as we expected but we enjoyed the food and the hospitality was above ordinary. Bestmed and University of Pretoria was definitely listed in our list of most hospitable event organizers.
Bestmed and University of Pretoria were expecting over 13 000 top runners, social runners, paraplegic participants and families to take part, in the 21km, 10km, 5km events. The organizers were also encouraging people to run as an awareness campaign for Cancer. The event timetable was a bit unclear but the event Kicked off with a brilliant speech from Pretoria mayor Solly Msimanga and that got everyone up to a early start for an event that would run half day.
The participants were mostly optimistic and an event with educators, scholars, professors and professionals seems unique and strategic partnership from best-med and the University of Pretoria. Never to say that this was evident in the orderliness of participants and the well organized race event that had no disruptions or problems.
Considering the 50,000 education investment that was up for grabs to the winner of the race, courtesy of Cheryl de la Rey, the principal of the University of Pretoria. A brilliant move to the uniqueness of the Bestmed race, one that shows a sign of concern and an act of involvement in the student #feesmustfall campaigns. Students who were at the event felt a sense of involvement in aiding the organizers use this platform to sponsor education. One of the runners, was at the event to personally run and stand in line to win the 50,000.
