In September 2022, the pathology team at University Hospital Southampton took on the largest and best inflatable 5k race in the UK. Here’s why…

Charlotte Wootten, Biomedical Support Worker, says, “The pathology team at the hospital is a massive department, looking at the cause, origin, and nature of diseases and science.

We were a team from pre-analytics which helps process and test samples for patients.

We signed up to run the Bournemouth 5k inflatable course as we wanted a challenge that would aid our team building outside of the hospital, and it looked like it would be fun to do.

It certainly brought us together, climbing obstacles together, and helping each other!

Honestly, I haven’t laughed as much as I did during and after completing the course with everyone.

On the day, eleven of us took part in the 5k run, with more of the team joining us as spectators along the course, cheering us on which was amazing!

Some of the obstacles were quite challenging, so the best bit was everyone helping each other to get through and over the obstacles.

There was so much variation across the course, but the one that stuck with all of us was the massive slide across the finish line that we all completed at the same time!

The 5k distance was great for our team as it was a long enough distance to be a challenge, but was still achievable for everyone, as we all had varying abilities and training for the run.

It wasn’t as daunting as you would think it could be.

Having the different starting waves of runners meant that we could all go at our own pace, making it more enjoyable.

The course is also broken up by the inflatable obstacles, so it isn’t straight running, making it far more entertaining!

Once signed up, we decided to raise money for Southampton Hospitals Charity so we could support the hospital and our patients. We are proud of where we work, so we were delighted to raise nearly £1,500 for the hospital.

Overall, I’d really recommend taking part in any of the inflatable 5k races. We all had an incredible time laughing our way around the course, making memories, and we are incredibly proud of the amount we raised for charity!”