3K Your Way 2026 – Thank You!

What a day. What a community.

Yesterday, more than 856 students and staff gathered in glorious sunshine for our annual 3K Your Way fun run, only for the heavens to open with truly spectacular timing ten minutes before we got underway. If the enthusiasm of the warm-up crowd was undimmed by torrential rain, the run itself was something else entirely. A second downpour around the 20-minute mark tested everyone's resolve, yet the overwhelming majority crossed the finish line - many of you grinning, all of us soaked.

I was out there running too, so I can tell you first-hand that the humour, the mutual encouragement, and the sheer refusal to let the weather win were genuinely inspiring. Colleagues cheering on students, students cheering on colleagues, and complete strangers spurring each other on through the puddles - this was English summer weather in all its glory, and our University of Birmingham community at its very best.

A huge thank you to every single person who took part, whether you ran, walked, jogged, volunteered, or stood at the side shouting encouragement in the rain. Thank you, too, to everyone behind the scenes who organised and marshalled the event, and whose hard work made it all possible.

We came for a fun run. We got a monsoon. And somehow, it was all the better for it.

Same time next year?