Wear reflective gear: bright, neon or white clothing will help drivers spot you from afar.
Think low: car headlights are angled down slightly, so try to wear reflective socks or shoelaces.
Draw attention to your moving parts: wear reflective gear on your feet, ankles and wrists.
Use flashlights and headlamps: these light your way and alert people of your presence.
Wear layers: Multiple light layers can help keep your body insulated while allowing heat to circulate through your body without overheating. Your first layer should be moisture-wicking and a light fleece layer should keep you warm.
Cover your hands and ears: Avoid frostbite by covering these vulnerable areas on your body. Get the right shoes: Make sure your shoe has more traction than a typical gym shoe. If it needs more traction, you can try ice cleats that you can add to the bottom of any shoe. Avoid mesh fabric.
Wear bright colours: Winter is known for dark mornings and afternoons. Wear bright clothing and reflective gear to make sure other people and cars see you running.
Pick a safe route: Pavements with ice and snow can cause barriers to your route.
Warm-up: Do a few jumping jacks or high knees to warm your body up before you go outside.
Recover afterwards: This will help protect your muscles from cramping, soreness and dehydration.
It’s not unusual to encounter bad weather when running in the UK, so it’s important to have the right equipment. Alternatively, you can complete the miles on a treadmill at home or the gym. When running in adverse weather, remember to check and know your route. Understanding your surroundings will help you avoid difficult terrain and make sure you stick to safer, flat surfaces. What does the 10 Days of 5k in March Challenge involve?
Supporters raise money by challenging themselves to complete 10 days of 5k throughout the month of March.
Once you have signed up, join the Facebook Group. Once you're in, you can complete a form to get your free tech top, get tips for completing your miles, be inspired by other fundraisers, and find out anything you want to know about the challenge.
Yes! If you don’t have Facebook, you can set up a Cancer Research UK online Giving Page and collect sponsorship for your 10 Days of 5k Challenge.
There is no entry fee for this challenge. Participants are asked to collect funds for Cancer Research UK through your online Giving Page. This will automatically be sent to us once paid onto your page.
Whilst we encourage everyone to complete this challenge in March, this is a personal challenge, and you can start and finish your challenge at a time that is convenient for you. If you have difficulty completing your kilometres, then you can make up for it at any point of the month and continue the challenge into April.
There are people of all levels of fitness doing this challenge. The important thing is that you're doing something that challenges you. This will vary from person to person, so tailor the challenge however you like. It should be tough, but doable. However, you choose to break down the 5k runs, you’ll be helping beat cancer.
There are plenty of free apps that will allow you to track your miles such as Strava, Nike Run Club and RunKeeper. Posting about your progress on your page will help encourage donations! We recommend using Strava so supporters can link their Strava account to their online Giving Page. Find out how to connect your Giving Page to Strava here.
Of course! You can complete your miles in a way that’s a challenge for you.
There are plenty of ways you can hit your weekly target – attempt to make up the numbers with a couple of shorter runs or save them for a big run on the weekend!
The only thing that matters is that you challenge yourself and try your best to complete as much of the challenge as you can. Whether that’s completing all your miles the whole of March or not, the money that you fundraise through participating will allow Cancer Research UK to continue to fund life-saving research and we can’t thank you enough.
We trust you! You don’t need to provide evidence that you’ve completed the challenge to us. Updating your friends and family and sharing your Online Giving Page is more important! Make sure you keep them posted on your progress and share videos and photos throughout March– the more updates the better. Supporters that post their progress raise on average 40% more. We recommend you connect your Giving Page to Fitbit or Strava so you can track your steps or miles automatically. Find out how here.
*Please note: With Strava there is sometimes a 48-hour lag in the Strava data being updated, and if the miles still aren't showing, disconnect and reconnect to do a hard reset and this will add any miles already on the Strava account.
Warming up properly before running will help prevent injury and should only take 5 minutes.
March on the spot for up to 3 minutes - Start off marching on the spot and then march forwards and backwards. Pump your arms up and down in rhythm with your steps, keeping the elbows bent and the fists soft.
Heel dig for 1 minute - For heel digs, place alternate heels to the front, keeping the front foot pointing up, and punch out with each heel dig. Keep a slight bend in the supporting leg.
Knee lifts for 30 seconds - To do knee lifts, stand tall and bring up alternate knees to touch the opposite hand. Keep your abs tight and back straight. Keep a slight bend in the supporting leg.
Shoulder rolls for 2 sets of 10 repetitions - For shoulder rolls, keep marching on the spot. Roll your shoulders forwards 5 times and backwards 5 times. Let your arms hang loose by your sides.
Knee bends for 10 repetitions - To do knee bends, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands stretched out. Lower yourself no more than 10cm by bending your knees. Come up and repeat.
For more information and guidance on these warmups please see this NHS link.
It’s not unusual to encounter bad weather when out running in the UK. It’s important that you have the right equipment and approach if you’re running in adverse weather. Alternatively, it’s more than ok for you to complete the miles inside on a treadmill at home/the gym, if that’s an option for you. When taking on a run in adverse weather, remember to check your route and know your trail, understanding your surroundings will help you avoid difficult terrain and ensure you stick to safer, flat surfaces. There’s always a chance you’ll be caught off guard in bad weather whilst out and about, see below some useful equipment to consider:
Waterproof clothing
Neck warmer/buff
Water and food
Mobile phone
It’s important that you’re well prepared for your run, especially if you’re considering going for a long-distance run. See below a list of appropriate equipment you might want to consider:
Running shorts or tights
Running top or light t-shirt
Water along with rehydration and glucose supplements
Running trainers
Running socks
Sports bra
Snack to help maintain energy levels
Winter weight running tights or thermal tights if it's cold
Long sleeves jacket if it's cold
Waterproof jacket and shoes if it's raining outside
Complete this form to receive your free tech top in the post. Once completed, please allow 10- 15 working days for your running top to arrive. Please ensure you review the size chart before selecting your size as size measurements may vary and we will not be able to send another t-shirt. Size Chest (cm) Chest (in) S 52.5 21 M 56 22 L 58.5 23 XL 63 25 XXL 65 26 If you have not received your tech top within this time, please contact: supporter.services@cancer.org.uk.
Unfortunately, it costs Cancer Research UK more money to return the tech top, so we ask that you keep hold of it for personal use (for example bed, gym, give to a friend, etc).
Sending out your tech top comes at a cost to Cancer Research UK so please only order one tech top to ensure as much fundraising goes towards our life-saving research. We ask if you do request a tech top that you set up a Giving Page and make a donation to your page.
For this challenge, if you have raised at least £100 you will be sent a medal. You’ll also be sent a certificate in your completion email at the end of your challenge. You can also access downloadable digital badges to shout about your achievement on social media.
Setting up a Giving Page is the easiest way to raise money. You can set one up here. You can then share the page with your friends and family to gather sponsorship for your challenge.
There is not a minimum amount of fundraising that we set for participant, but we recommend that supporters set a reasonable target of raising about £150.
The 10 Days of 5k Challenge is specifically a fundraising initiative developed by Cancer Research UK, and therefore all fundraising must go direct to the charity.
Gift Aid is a tax relief allowing UK charities to reclaim an extra 25% on every eligible donation made by a UK taxpayer. This means Cancer Research UK can claim an extra 25p for every £1 donated, without it costing you or your sponsors an extra penny. If the donation is eligible for Gift Aid, sponsors need to fill out the sponsor form, following the guidelines at the top of the page.
We have plenty of fundraising tools and ideas to help you raise life-saving donations. Visit our fundraising hub to find everything you need for your challenge. Within emails, you will receive a link to a fundraising pack which you can download. No physical copies will be sent of any of the fundraising materials.
Yes, under 18s can take part in this challenge, but we do not market to them and any third-party platform forum (e.g. a Facebook forum) is only available to over 18s. If under 18s are taking part, their parent/guardian must consent to the child’s participation, supervise the challenge and accept responsibility for complying with the challenge rules. Currently we are unable to accept registration for a child, so the child’s parent/guardian must register on the child’s behalf. Similarly, if a child wants to raise money online and/or join a forum, the child’s parent/guardian must register for an online fundraising page and/or join the forum on the child’s behalf.
Participants register as an individual but can take on the challenge as a team and split the activity up as a group or all complete the 5ks across the month. They can also set up a Team Giving Page and invite other registrants to join via the Cancer Research UK online fundraising site. To set up a team:
All your team will need to sign up to the 10 Days of 5k Challenge so they each have their own online Giving Page
Once everyone has signed up, log into your account
Hit the 'Create new team' button and follow the instructions
Once you've created your team, you can send the team page URL to friends and family so they can join too!
