Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival mascots, Horatio Herring and Lofty the Lighthouse, have pledged their support to run the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile along Great Yarmouth’s Golden Mile on Sunday 25 March. They hope to encourage many more local people to show their support for Sport Relief by running, hopping, skipping, walking, jogging or jumping the mile course.

As demonstrated by Horatio Herring and Lofty the Lighthouse and Alan Carr, Head of Tourism for Great Yarmouth Borough Council, who is spending time in the local gym preparing for the event, entrants don’t have to be sporty to take part. Runners can choose from a one-mile, three-mile or a six-mile exploration of Great Yarmouth’s famous Golden Mile. It costs £6 adults, £3 children or £15 for a family of four to enter the mile. Entry fees cover the costs of staging the event.

With the start located between Merrivale Model Village and the Pleasure Beach Gardens on Marine Parade, participants will make their way up the slow lane, usually used by the Great Yarmouth landaus, towards the Marina Fitness and Leisure Centre. Passing between the sports hall and Pirates Cove Adventure Golf, runners will return down the wide, beachside esplanade finishing the one-mile course back at Merrivale Model Village. Runners participating in the three or six-mile course will complete their distance by doing three or six laps of the picturesque seafront course.

The event is being organised by Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s Tourism Division. Alan Carr, Head of Tourism said: “The Sport Relief Mile is a great opportunity to run your first ever race in a friendly, fun environment, and what better race for me than the very first Great Yarmouth seafront mile. I’m looking forward to beating Horatio and Lofty to the finish line at the very least! Please raise some sponsorship and help to change the lives of people living on our doorstep in Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk, across the rest of the UK and in some of the world’s poorest countries.”

Sport Relief has a unique history of dedicated people doing extraordinary things to rise to the challenge. Last September, David Walliams started Sport Relief off with an epic splash when he completed The BT Sport Relief Challenge: Walliams vs The Thames. Despite battling a nasty bacterial bug and freezing cold water, David swam 140 miles and has so far raised over £1million for Sport Relief.

And that’s not all; there will be even more amazing celebrity challenges to get the whole nation geared up for the Sport Relief weekend which kicks off on Friday 23 March when everyone gets active, has fun and raises cash at home, at work or at school; before settling down to watch a night of top Sport Relief TV on BBC One. There will be even more BBC radio, online and TV coverage throughout the weekend to keep you entertained. By the end of the weekend everyone will be raring to go, when the whole nation comes together to take part in the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile on Sunday 25 March 2012.