Chariots of Fire

*Hums theme

We are proud to work in partnership with this fantastic event, developing and updating the Chariots of Fire website every year, and of course we compete fiercely in the race itself!

The race celebrates the original film ‘Chariots of Fire’, and is the initial idea of Bill Matthews, raising funds and awareness for local charities. Each runner completes 1.7 miles of a picturesque route through central Cambridge including some college grounds and six people make one team.

The original film celebrates the story of Harold Abrahams, a Cambridge runner with the ambition to win a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics. The film includes the iconic scene of the race around Trinity Court. In 2003 Lord Puttnam creator of the original film started the race and said:

“I am very proud of the fact that twenty five years after its production, Chariots of Fire is proving its value by, among other things, helping to raise money for charities in Cambridgeshire year after year. It must have struck a chord for I know of no other film that manages to evoke the same, entirely positive reaction”.

The first ever Chariots of Fire race took place in the grounds of The Perse School For Boys in Cambridge, with 77 teams and torrential rain! As the event grew the race moved to the location at Queen’s Green, the route now includes: Trinity, Kings and Claire Colleges.

Since the very first event in 1992, Chariots has raised over 1 million in aid of local and regional charities. Over the years an estimated 6,245 teams have entered, with around 37,470 individual racers.

For many years the president of the event was aptly Sir Arthur Marshall, a veteran from the 1924 Olympic team, whose story is celebrated in the film Chariots of Fire. Since 2007 his son Sir Michael Marshall has taken over the role after Sir Arthur Marshall’s sad death.

This year the full amount of teams was reached well before the event, 380 teams took part in the relay, that’s 2,280 runners! This year we achieved a time of 01:10:12, which we are proud to say is a Studio 24 best! This put us 69th out of 240 mixed teams!

Previous year’s times:

Thanks to some fantastic organisation and support from volunteers all the way around the course, we all thoroughly enjoyed the event, and can’t wait for next year. Well done to all competitors, see you next time!

A big thank you to Slant Riggs for supplying our running tshirts.