Staying safe while taking part 

Running off Christmas is a virtual running challenge to run 31 miles throughout January. You can break it up into chunks that work for you and run whenever and wherever you like, while raising money to help support seriously ill children.

Once you’ve signed up, you’ll have your own JustGiving fundraising page. Share this with your friends and family to ask for donations.

You can connect your fundraising page to a Strava account. Every time you run, it adds miles to your page. If you don’t have an app, you can add them manually.

As your miles and fundraising increase, you’ll earn virtual badges.

No. You can jog or walk if you want to. You have the freedom to tailor this challenge to suit you!

You can connect your fundraising page to the fitness app, Strava. You can also use our downloadable tracker if you’d prefer to keep track of your miles at home and update friends and family by posting on your fundraising page.

You sure can! You won’t be able to use Strava to track your miles, but you can post updates to your friends and family to let them know how you’re getting on.

Not at all. Our supporters told us they wanted a fundraising challenge to support their new year’s resolution efforts and so we devised “Running Off Christmas” as a way to set an achievable goal to get back into fitness, while raising money for a fantastic cause.

JustGiving have a really helpful, step-by-step guide for you to follow here.

You can post updates, both text and with images, on your fundraising page. You can also download a paper tracker to print off and keep track on there too. Sharing how you’re getting on with your challenge will encourage people to sponsor you.

Yes. You can create your own team with friends, family or work colleagues, which they can then join. This can be done during registration or after by visiting and logging into your fundraising page and selecting 'edit page'. Please remember that if you choose to run with someone, you adhere to the current guidelines around social distancing.

You can contact help@justgiving.com if you're having technical problems with your page or your donors are having issues with their donations.

We ask everyone to raise as much as they can. The money you raise helps to create a better future for seriously ill children. But no, there’s no pressure of a fundraising target.

Visit our Fundraising tips page for plenty of ideas and ways to smash your fundraising target!

You can! Pay your offline donations directly onto your fundraising page or through our online form here. Make sure you say you’re taking part in Running off Christmas! You can also call to pay over the phone on: 020 3841 3131

Everyone who raises over £100 by 28 February will receive a Running off Christmas medal. We will be sending these out during March 2021 to allow everyone time to complete their fundraising. Terms and Conditions apply.

The first 500 people to register and raise £50 will receive a Running off Christmas t-shirt (Terms and Conditions apply). We will start to get in touch with those who will be receiving the t-shirt towards the end of December to ask for your preferred size, so keep an eye out. T-shirts will then arrive in the beginning of January.

Every day brings new challenges at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Every day around 600 children and young people from across the UK arrive for life-changing treatments. Every day, doctors and nurses battle the most complex illnesses, and the brightest minds come together to achieve pioneering medical breakthroughs. And, every day that you run and raise money you'll help Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity give seriously ill children the chance of a better future.

The money you raise will help the charity to fund groundbreaking research, advanced medical equipment, child and family support services, and the rebuilding and refurbishment of wards and medical facilities.