Photographing the 2022 Manchester Marathon for SENSE

I was recently contacted by the UK Charity Sense to photograph the 2022 Manchester Marathon.  Having worked with Sense previously, I was delighted to have the opportunity to do so again.

Ably assisted by Rose, we got to the Sense cheer point first thing in the morning.  The sun was shining brightly, but the temperature gauge was nudging 2 degrees! (brrrr)

Brighter still though was the amazing group of Sense staff and volunteers that greeted us. There was a fantastic choir of some 15-or-so, along with the Sense team (Alli, Kirsten, Tasha and Angela), who were armed with POM-POMS, clappers and wearing tutus (of course).  Needless to say, it wasn’t long before I was also wearing a tutu.  (I can’t seem to find the picture of this *ahem*).

Sense had about 100 amazing runners taking part, raising awareness and raising money and I grew more in awe of them as each one passed me by. There were thousands of runners taking part, raising money for any charity you can think of.

We were stationed at the 2 mile / 25 mile mark (loop), and as the day went on I found myself photographing those same faces that I had photographed at mile 2. Broad grins replaced with tired smiles as they neared the end of the race.  It was an amazing (and incredibly moving, for that matter) experience to see these same faces filling the camera frame, having run over 26 miles.

These were people of all ages running, limping, walking, and being helped along by friends and strangers alike but carrying on, not stopping, and it was lovely to see them being lifted as spectators and the cheer team shouted for them as they completed that last gruelling mile.

I want to say a massive congratulations to everyone that took part in this amazing event, and raising money for Sense and all those charities that are close to your heart.  You should be incredibly proud of yourselves, and I hope that you’re now having a well earned rest.

I will be posting images from the Marathon onto my social media, and into a dedicated gallery over the coming week, so feel free to  hook up with me on there.

I am on Instagram as davidlaslettphotography (this is a new account with less cats and baking images than my personal davidlaslett account, so would welcome a follow). My Facebook page is David Laslett Photography, Twitter is @davidlaslett and of course, I’m on LinkedIn as plain old David Laslett.

Here are a small handful of images from the thousands I took on the day (if you were a Sense runner, they will be in touch with you soon with a link to a special SENSE gallery and a little prezzie from me for being AWESOME).

I encourage you to check out the amazing work that Sense do, and support their campaigns at www.sense.org.uk.  You can also find them on all social media.