Please join us to 'RUN for LUZ' - Tribute Virtual Run - April 10/11th.

Signup is completely free - absolutely everyone is invited to take part.

Recently we received the devastating news that Luzviminda Villamil, a prolific runner with running groups around the world, had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Luz was a wonderfully supportive runner, hugely active in many running groups and loved by all who met her, no matter whether that was in person or through virtual running. We had the very great pleasure of having Luz, her husband David and a group of friends run with us in person at our 10in10 event in 2019. Luz went on to run in 150 of our virtual events including 20in20 days and many of our long distance VULTRA events. In fact Luz logged a staggering 758 separate runs with us.

Luz was running our Antarctica VULTRA event both as a solo runner and as part of 'Team Happy Feet', a team she set up and was the Captain of. Team Happy Feet immediately got in touch with me to ask if they could donate virtual miles to Luz to get her to the finish line one more time. I think this is a wonderful gesture. Luz needs 506.86 miles to virtually reach the South Pole and so by hosting this tribute run we can all 'RUN for LUZ' and see how many miles we can total for her.

Having spoken with David we have his blessing to arrange this tribute run to honour Luz. We're hoping to bring together runners and race organisations from around the world to 'RUN for LUZ' on the weekend of April 10/11th. This will be a completely FREE virtual run; no entry fees, no fundraising, no money involved at all - just one foot in front of the other, the way it should be. A huge thank you to our EventEntry platform and map hosting services for agreeing to waive all fees to make this happen for Luz.

We've teamed up with Mainly Marathons in the USA where Luz was a huge part of the Mainly Family. We've also teamed up with our buddies at Enigma Running here in the UK - David 'Foxy' Bayley knew Luz very well and ran many times with her and the MM team in the States. I've been in touch with Jesse Rueckert, RD at Mainly Marathons, as they are inviting folks to wear green running shirts and to run in tribute for Luz on day 1 of their Riverboat series in Winnsboro, Louisiana on April 11th. With Jesse's kind permission we're going to join the MM team 'Virtually' from here in the UK and hopefully around the world. We've recreated the exact Riverboat day 1 route in Civitan Park as a 1.2 mile infinity loop on our virtual platform. Anyone who wants to 'Run for Luz' can simply sign up for the run on the EventEntry platform and use the voucher code above so that the event is completely free. We'll open the virtual map and miles logging system from 12:00am on 10th April (UK time) so that Luz's New Zealand and Australian friends can start logging miles. Then we'll keep the event open for 48 hours capturing the full spread of the April 11th date no matter where you are in the world.

We're inviting folks to run, walk or crawl any distance from 1 mile and to run as many or as few times as they like during the 48 hour event. It doesn't matter where you are in the world or which race events you might be already running in - you can still run for Luz. You'll get a bespoke, digital BIB when you sign up and access to the route map and central results and progress landing pages on the Phoenix Running website.

Everyone gets access to Phoenix World to log their miles and each competitor will have their own virtual location pin (complete with their name and BIB number for tracking your virtual progress) and you can even have your profile picture appear if you select that function in the settings. Once you start your virtual 'RUN for LUZ' you'll submit your mileage after each run, which, once approved, will automatically move you around the map where we'll virtually join our friends in the US who are actually there running the route.

Please consider joining us to 'RUN for LUZ' on 10th and 11th April 2021

A video from the Mainly Marathons website for the lap preview can be found here, so that you can see exactly where we'll all be virtually running on April 11th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAOZudZeR5Q

To sign-up and log in to your very own Phoenix WORLD account click here and follow the simple sign-up process. You only sign up once and then you can log in to your Phoenix WORLD to submit virtual results, see what future events you've entered in the crystal ball, manage your details and much, much more.

---

We provide a physical running service and by entering our events you are purchasing an actual run, either by attending our events or by running the event virtually yourself. All participants in our events, both attended and virtual, will receive a free giveaway medal / memento from your run.