On Saturday 5th February over 500 participants endured the heat and competed in The Great Urban Race in a wonderful array of fancy dress costumes. A Start in Life was the official local charity partner of the event.

As one of their clues, participants were asked to deliver kits of school stationary to the A Start in Life head office. The results were amazing with over 750 pens, 635 pencils, 222 highlighters and 187 exercise books received, which will help give hundreds of underprivileged school kids the same start to 2011 as their class mates.

"We were thrilled to find an organisation focused on helping build a solid foundation for underprivileged children. Once we researched A Start in Life further and spoke with a representative, it was clear that this would be a wonderful local charity partner for Great Urban Race." Caitlin Synowiec, The Great Urban Race.

The Great Urban Race is a global event organised by American event company Red Frog Events. The race takes place in 40 cities across the globe in 2011. Teams navigate around the city solving twelve clues, scavenging for random items, deciphering puzzles and completing mental and physical challenges and games, while discovering the city in a fresh way.

Here are some pictures taken on the day. Click on the image to view a larger version.