Engage takes on The 2.6 Challenge
Roughly a 3 minute read by Simon
What is The 2.6 Challenge?
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a catastrophic effect on fundraising, with the cancellation of thousands of events resulting in the loss of billions of income.
The Virgin Money London Marathon alone, which should have taken place on Sunday 26 April, is the world’s biggest one-day fundraising event, raising more than £66.4 million for thousands of charities in 2019.
In response, the organisers of the biggest mass-participation sports events across the country have come together to create a new campaign to raise vital funds to help save the UK’s charities. The campaign, The 2.6 Challenge, will launch on Sunday 26 April – what should have been the date of the Marathon.
Many of these charities have had to reduce or stop services at a time when vulnerable members of society need them most; thousands of staff have been placed on furlough and many charities will not survive the next few months.
From Sunday 26th April, the public is asked to do an activity based around the numbers 2.6 or 26 and fundraise or donate to Save the UK’s Charities. We at Engage want to do our bit too, and since we work closely with our four Elympics charities, and through a bit of piggybacking, we are going to donate directly to them.
We love the idea of The 2.6 Challenge (and we’re always keen to do what we can for our charities) so we’re going to do our own 2.6 challenge and in order to give them a little bit extra during these tough times.
If you want to get involved for causes you support, all you need to do is think of an activity based around the numbers 26 or 2.6 that suits your skills and complete it on Sunday 26th April. This could be something as simple as pledging to run 2.6 miles as your daily exercise to doing 26 minutes of yoga, or juggling for 26 minutes (or maybe just 2.6 minutes) non-stop.
What Engage is going to do
On Sunday 26th April we’re all going to do a 2.6/26-related challenge. We’re going to run, walk, skip, cycle, do kick-ups and more.
You can see what we’re all going to be up to below:
- Alex S - Run for 26 minutes
- Alex W - Cycle 26 miles
- Charlotte - Yoga 26 minutes
- Dave - Indoor cycle 26 miles
- Dom - Cycle 26 miles
- Fred - Solve a rubicks cube in exactly 26 seconds
- Imogen - Skipping for 26 minutes
- Josh - 26 mins of kick-ups
- Kate - Yoga 26 minutes
- Rosie - Yoga 26 minutes / Run 2.6 miles
- Si - Run 2.6 miles
- Will B - Cycle 26 miles
We typically raise money directly through exercise via our Elympics platform. However, because this is a special occasion, for anyone doing any non-fitness related activities, we’ll be donating an extra £10 for everyone who completes their challenges.
Keep an eye out for us on our Instagram, and be sure to check out the hashtag #TwoPointSixChallenge to see what people got up to.
If you feel like donating to our four charities you can use our GoFundMe page, and we’ll make sure they get it.