More than 130 people from across Cardiff’s hospitality industry are preparing to take part in the CDF 10K as the city’s Hospitality vs 10K Challenge returns for its biggest year yet.
Runners representing more than 30 restaurants, bars, pubs, hotels and leisure venues will take part in the race on Sunday 6 September, raising money for Cardiff-based children’s charity Dreams & Wishes.
The initiative was established by Lab 22 owner Tani Hasa in 2024, when he initially purchased 30 race places and offered them to people working in hospitality who might not otherwise have considered entering a 10K.
Demand led to further places being made available and 62 people took part in the first event. Participation increased to 100 in 2025 and has reached 130 for this year’s challenge.
Alongside fundraising, organisers say the initiative has developed into a wider wellbeing and community programme, encouraging hospitality workers to run together and build connections with people working across different venues.
Hasa said: “The first year was about convincing people who would never normally sign up for a 10K that they could do it. Three years later, some of those people are proper runners. They’re signing up for other races, running together and telling us what a difference it has made to their mental health.
“Run clubs are everywhere now, which is brilliant, but if you work evenings, weekends and irregular shifts in hospitality, a lot of those things just aren’t designed around your life. We wanted to create something that was.
“Hospitality can become a cycle of working, drinking and sleeping if you’re not careful. This has given people something completely different to connect over, and we’ve seen friendships and communities develop between people who might never otherwise have met.”
Organisers said participants have continued meeting for runs and other activities outside the annual event, while seeing colleagues take part has encouraged more hospitality workers to join the challenge each year.
Lab 22 Bar Manager Sam Lloyd said: “One of the loveliest things has been hearing people talking about running across the bar, making plans with people from completely different venues and doing things together outside work.
“Hospitality is an incredibly sociable industry, but because of the hours we work, the different cultures within venues and simply people’s different personalities, it doesn’t always mean people have an easy way to make new connections.
“This has created that. People have something in common before they’ve even properly met, and it has given people a way to be part of the wider hospitality community that isn’t just based around work or drinking.”
10K for the 10K
The challenge will again raise funds for Dreams & Wishes, which supports seriously ill children and their families.
The partnership has a personal connection with Lab 22 through former Dreams & Wishes ambassador Jay Page, who encouraged Hasa to support the charity.
Following Page’s death in 2025, the Lab 22 team decided to continue fundraising for Dreams & Wishes in his memory.
Hasa said: “Jay always supported us, and he was the person who first encouraged me to donate to Dreams & Wishes. He isn’t here to do that anymore, so carrying that support forward feels really important to us.
“It’s also a charity where the impact feels incredibly tangible. These are children and families within our own community here in South Wales, and you know the money you’re raising can make an enormous difference to an individual family at an incredibly difficult time.”
The inaugural Hospitality vs 10K raised more than £6,000, while the 2025 event generated more than £10,000.
Lab 22 funds race entries for participants and provides each runner with a personalised T-shirt and an additional item marking their participation.
Runners received reusable water bottles during the first year and team caps in 2025, with lanyards being provided for this year’s event.
Hasa added: “It’s not about wearing something because you bought it. It’s about looking at it afterwards and thinking: ‘I was there. I did that with everyone.’
“The experience that we get to share with our community – the friendships built; the positive personal changes made; the opportunity to raise money for a brilliant cause – makes every hour of organisation and pound spent undoubtedly worth it for us.
“We’ve always said that Lab should be more than a bar. You can say you’re a business that cares about its community, but ultimately it is actions that matter. We want to give people experiences that genuinely connect them with us and with each other.”
Pasture Cardiff will support the event for a third year by hosting a post-race buffet for all 130 runners on its terrace.
Pasture Cardiff General Manager Carys Northmore said: “I have to say thank you to Tani and the Lab 22 team for getting myself and Pasture involved in such an incredible event, now for the third year in a row.
“Running with everyone is an amazing reminder of the strong hospitality community that we have in Cardiff, and to be able to unite everyone for an amazing cause means so much.”
Participants include employees from Asador 44, Barbara’s, Be At One, Bonnie Rogues, The Botanist, Bran, Browns, Cosy Club, Curado, Dirty Gnocchi, Gaucho, Golf Fang, Gin & Juice, Glamorgan Cricket, Ivy Asia, Lab 22, Lowkey, Mad Dog, Mowgli, Nighthawks, NQ64 Arcade Bar, Parallel, Pasture, Picton & Co, Rum & Fizz, Security Cymru, Six by Nico, Sonder, The Cocktail Club, The Dead Canary, The Bear, Tonight Josephine and Vicino.
Lab 22 is also considering expanding the concept beyond Cardiff through a future ‘Hospitality vs 10K on Tour’ initiative, encouraging hospitality communities in other locations to organise around running, wellbeing and local charitable causes.
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