7 September 2010 The 30th year of one of the country’s largest off-road marathons has attracted entries from across the globe with entrants travelling from as far as Canada, America and Romania to take part in the challenging 26-mile route across the South Downs.
Entries for this year’s Beachy Head Marathon taking place on Saturday 23 October have now closed with 1,750 entrants about to hit their final month of training for the popular course. Celebrating its 30th year in 2010, places always fill up quickly for the marathon that takes in countryside across the new South Downs National Park and this year athletes are coming from around the world to take part with Germany, Romania, Denmark, Canada, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France and America all being represented.
Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Member for Tourism, Cllr Neil Stanley said “What a fantastic line up of entrants we have taking part in this special 30th year of the Beachy Head Marathon. Internationally renowned around the world for its challenging route and spectacular countryside, the 1,750 places are always in high demand and I want to encourage plenty of spectators to cheer the walkers, joggers and runners along! With places still available for the Junior Beachy Head Challenge, I hope we’ll see some children taking on a mini marathon of their own and competing for first place in the 2 and 3km courses!”
The Junior Beachy Head Challenge returns for the fourth year in 2010 with budding young athletes invited to try out the course for themselves with specially designed 2 and 3km routes. Children aged 12-16 are invited to take on the 3km challenge and juniors aged 8-11 can test their mettle on the 2km route. Featuring as a press pack on CBBC Newsround in 2009, young runners can find out what it’s like and download an entry form online from the Marathon website.
With the Beachy Head Marathon covering a 26-mile cross-country course including 300 steps and 14 gates, a large team of volunteer stewards and marshals are needed to guide the entrants and spur them on, and opportunities are still available for eager helpers. Anyone interested should contact the Events team on 01323 415442.
The Worshipful the Mayor of Eastbourne, Cllr Carolyn Heaps will start the 26-mile course at 9am sharp with the event starting and finishing at St. Bede’s School at the foot of the South Downs. It is expected that the first runner in will be around 11.45am with a steady stream through until the last one home at around 6.30pm, so visitors are encouraged to come along and watch and cheer the finishers in.
For more information on this year’s Beachy Head Marathon, which is organised by Eastbourne Borough Council alongside Eastbourne Hospitality Association (EHA), go to the Marathon website.
