Elementor #1794

THE CHURCH BELL RUN - 2019

Our Brand New Event for 2019

While I was developing some of the “Ways to Celebrate” our event World Run Day this past October, I came across the concept of using Church Bells as a starting gun for another event – The Church Bell Run. 

Similar to the movie “Chariots of Fire”  where a Clock Tower, situated in the “Great Court,” was used to start a run; Church Bells certainly would be a grand idea. It would be even more grand on a worldwide scale. 

I’ll try to recount the rest of my thinking about this event. So here were my thoughts (in order): 

1. Knowing that churches are commonplace throughout the world, each runner, no matter where they lived, could use a common sound (a church bell) where they live to start their own race (a virtual run). 

2. Knowing that New Year’s was approaching – which I think is an ideal day for starting a new running regimen – I logically had the date picked out. I know the fireworks go off at midnight; but let’s face it:  most of us aren’t ready to lace up our shoes and go out for a run after midnight (most of us). 

 3.Typically, on New Year’s Day we wait for the early or middle of the morning to run: 9:00 AM appears to be a good time. Most weekend running events that I’ve seen have a 9AM start. And I think many Church Bells ring at 9AM.

4. And since everyone would be starting at 9AM, the concept of Time Zones came into play. The acceptable standard appears to be 24 Time Zones throughout the world. After researching; however, the topic can be somewhat complex – even for Google and Wikipedia. I won’t confuse  you with the logic I’ve read. For the sake of argument, we’ll use 24 zones in the logo. 

5. At this point in the creativity process, everything seemed to be falling into place rather neatly. I realized, of course, that everyone may not like the idea of Church Bells starting their race for possibly religious reasons. I was being either overly-sensitive or not sensitive enough – I couldn’t determine which. No problem, just as grand as Church Bells are, there are Clock Towers, and if neither available … well everyone’s cell phone has a Clock Tower or Bell Tower sound – They could be good substitutes if indeed needed.  

 6. There was certainly a lot more thinking, researching (and struggling) that went into this event. But for now, let’s enjoy the thought and see how this one goes. It’s really a first-time event and I’ll be taking notes. 

In hundreds of years we’ve never had the thought of uniting these Grand Bells together in a massive running event (including Clock Towers). 

When the clock strikes 9AM on January 1, 2019 be part of a new tradition in ringing in the new year. Remember that these bells were heard by many of our ancestors – they can be considered the ties that bind us. 

Happy New Year to everyone. 

Pursuit & Perseverance,

Bill McDermott
New York, USA

I imagine part of my inspiration came from a vacation I took with my wife to Barcelona this past August. My wife, fluent in the spanish language, made the trip even more enjoyableHaving a spanish speaking wife in Spain was fter having visited Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia this past summer and visiting other Cathedrals in the city, maybe the thought of Church Bells starting an event would be a novel idea – at least world-wide.  on a 

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