Durham City Run Festival returns to our historic city this year, providing summer competition, fun, and celebration.
From Thursday 13 – Saturday 15 July, Durham City will provide a world heritage setting for a whole host of events. We are delighted to be supporting the Festival as a major partner!
In addition to the ever-popular 10K and 5K runs, which will take place in the evening on Friday 14 July, other events on offer include the Run Like a Legend Mile, Paula Radcliffe’s Families on Track, a Horrible Histories themed run with author Terry Deary and Durham Mums on the Run.
So whether you are aiming to beat your hard-earned personal best, involve your whole family in an inclusive and continuous relay competition, or take a historical run through Durham centre to hear more about ‘Deadly Durham’, there really is something for everyone.
For inspiration, watch the video from 2022's Festival below.
This year the 10K and 5K entrants will cross the finish line in style on Palace Green to a musical soundtrack by Durham BRASS Festival, which takes place over the same time period.
Steve Cram, Durham City Run Festival founder, commented: “We’re over the moon to be returning to Palace Green for the 5K and 10K finish line. It’s an absolutely stunning location and while the final climb up the hill might test tired legs, we know that our runners loved crossing the finishing line beneath Durham Cathedral and Castle.”
To make this year’s events even more special, we’re also celebrating being named Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023. We’re thrilled that our commitment to sport as central to life here for many of our students has been formally recognised!
Quentin Sloper, our Director of Student Enrichment said: “Durham City Run Festival is one of the highlights of the summer sporting calendar for the region and we are excited to be playing an active part in an event which provides a great platform for students, staff, the wider community and visitors to our city to join together and celebrate sport and physical activity. This year’s programme is set to have more activities than ever before and is the perfect way to celebrate sports in Durham’s iconic World Heritage Site, together with our Sports University of the Year accolade.”
Over 75% of our students engage in sport and physical activity and we boast one of Britain’s largest student participation programmes in sport (18 sports across 700+ teams), including offering multiple sporting scholarships each year. The Guide named us first for producing professional sports stars (141 in total) and we count many sporting legends like Gabby Logan, Jonathan Edwards, Will Carling, Sophie Hosking and Caroline Atkins among the ranks of our global Durham alumni community.
As well as Durham City Run Festival, we also support other Durham-wide popular events, including Lumiere, Durham Book Festival, Durham Fringe Festival and the Summer in the City festival.
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