Stratford sixth-former delves into Shakespeare plays for marathon medal design
THERE will be new-look to the Shakespeare Marathon and Half-Marathon this year – and that includes the medal which runners will receive at the finish line.
This is the first year that RunThrough Events is organising the race after taking over from Stratford Rotary Club.
However, a few traditions will remain: Rotary is still involved, money will be raised for the Shakespeare Hospice and one Stratford school pupil will have designed the race medal, winning a competition run by the Stratford Herald and sponsored by Shakespeare Martineau.
The 2024 medal is the creative work of 16-year-old Martha Wainwright, who is in the sixth-form at Stratford Girls’ Grammar School.
For her design, Martha, who is studying art, history and drama, took some of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters from his plays and turned them into runners.
“As I live in Stratford I know a lot of the iconic characters from Shakespeare,” said Martha, as she was presented with a certificate and voucher – she will also get a copy of her marathon medal and the chance to present one to the winner of the marathon, which is on 21st April.
“I did play around with a lot of different positions for the characters as well as colours to see how they looked next to each other.”
The design was completed in Microsoft Word – not a piece of software favoured by many designers, but Martha said it was all she had available.
The end product, with a bit of input from Martha’s friend Monty Klein, made an impression on the judges – Andrew Smith, a partner at Shakespeare Martineau, Andy Veale, editor of the Stratford Herald and Samantha Wheeler, a representative of Stratford Rotary Club.
“Once again we had lots of creative and colourful entries into the competition, making it difficult to judge,” said Mr Smith. “However, there were a lot of clever elements to Martha’s design and that was something we all liked. Congratulations to Martha.”
There is still time to enter the Shakespeare Marathon or half-marathon, which forms part of the Shakespeare Birthday celebrations weekend. Early bird prices are still available, starting at £34 for the half-marathon and anyone interested should visit www.runthrough.co.uk/event/shakespeare-marathon-and-half-april-2024. The races start at 9am and include chip timed results, free event photographs and post-race goodies.
