Race "Honouring the warriors, running for the heroes of Ukraine" - is an annual charity race aimed primarily at honouring the memory of all the fallen soldiers who defended Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity. It takes place every year on the eve of the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine on 26 August.
Information about the race
- Official name: Race "Honouring the warriors, running for the heroes of Ukraine"
- Venue: Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Lutsk, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Uzhhorod, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kalush, Fastiv, Kropyvnytskyi, Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Starobilsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv (Ukraine)
- Time: August
- Type: road race
- Distance: 10 and 5 km.
- Time limit: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Route: urban - asphalt
- Registration: from 500 UAH
- Facebook: -
- Instagram: -
History
The competition was founded by Oleh Durmasenko, the father of the fallen Hero of the Russian-Ukrainian War, "cyborg" Oleksii Durmasenko, together with Taisiia Bratasiuk and Dmytro Prymachenko. Two years later, in 2020, the Ministry of Veterans also joined the organisation of this sporting event. In addition, the event also enjoys broad international support.
The first edition of the competition took place in 2018 at Expocentre in Ukraine. About 300 participants took part in it, including international guests, including representatives of the British Embassy and the US military attaché. The following year, the race was held in Kyiv on Trukhaniv Island. About three hundred participants also took part. In 2020, the main race took place in Mezhyhiria, with 650 participants. At the same time, parallel races were held in 9 other regions of the country, bringing together more than 900 participants.
In 2021, 1,200 participants ran down Khreshchatyk in Kyiv, starting from Maidan Nezalezhnosti. More than 7,000 more took part in different regions. At that time, the race was held in all regions of Ukraine. With the start of the full-scale invasion and the introduction of martial law, the competition did not stop, but only changed its format to online. They began to take place in parallel in different cities of our country, namely Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Lutsk, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Uzhhorod, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kalush, Fastiv, Kropyvnytskyi, Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Starobilsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, and Chernihiv.
Route
Participants can choose from three disciplines: 2, 5 and 10 kilometres. The time limit for the main 10-kilometre course is one and a half hours. All registrants must run the chosen distance with the name of a friend or stranger who gave their life in the fight for a free Ukraine pinned to their T-shirt and share a story about the Hero they are running for on social media using the hashtags #RunningForHero.
Registration for this very important event is also available online.
