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Brighton rocks!
The Brighton Marathon was one of 2010’s success stories. This year, we went behind the scenes (and ran the 26.2 too!) By Fiona Bugler
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For the second year running, the sun shone and spectators thronged the streets of Brighton as 8,000 runners hit the party town to run 26.2 miles. A couple of days before the race, I spent a day in Brighton soaking up the atmosphere at Expo and chatting to some of the key players of the big day. And on race day I ran (most of the way!) with the sub 3:10 pacemaker.
The race starter (and international athlete) “Tim (Hutchings, the race director and former international runner) and I go back a long way,” says Steve Cram, former international runner and official
race starter for 2011. “He’s worked hard getting up this race off the ground, and making it the success it is, and so he’s called in favours from all his old mates! Last year it was Steve Ovett, this year me, maybe next year it’ll be Lord Coe? “He did try to get me to run, but these
days I run to keep fit, two to three times a week. I get my athletics fix from broadcasting and coaching – and doing things like this.
“I’ll an easy job on the day. I always
get the urge to run at the start of a race, and when I set off the hooter I know I’ll think, ‘Oh, I’d like to be doing that,’ but fortunately most of the time I’m sensible enough to know when not to race!”
The Volunteer “First time runners will have no idea how much work is done behind the scenes,” says Caroline Wood, 47, a regular parkrun athlete and member of local Arena running club, and one of the 1,800 volunteers helping make the day a success. It’s the Friday before the race when we meet, and from race HQ (home to eight phones manned by volunteers) Caroline tells me: “Today we’ve got to move kit, branding, T-shirts, etc. to the logistics room. From there it will be deployed out onto the course tomorrow. We’ll start at 6am and have to get everything done in a couple of hours, including dispatching 49 road closure
38 n RUNNING FREE
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