Four Eccleshill Road Runners decided that a trip over to Cheshire was the order of the day. With a slight matter of 26.2 miles on their agenda. Voted the UK’s favourite marathon (less than 5000 runners) at the 2018 running awards. The MBNA Chester Marathon with its spectacular start and finish in the city centre, boasts a route which passes all Chester’s iconic landmarks. It then heads out into the Cheshire and North Wales countryside before returning along the banks of the River Dee for an unforgettable finish. However, due to ‘adverse’ weather conditions there have been some changes to the start and finish lines for this year’s event. The recent torrential rain has left extremely poor ground conditions at Chester Racecourse where the race was due to start and finish. The Marathon and the Metric Marathon started on Nuns Road and finished on Castle Drive, alongside the historic Chester Walls. An army of 700 dedicated volunteers combined to make this 10th staging of the race a hands on success and worthy of acclamation of the running awards “Gold Award” for the best road marathon. The event is also a qualifying race for the 2021 Abbott WMM Age Group World Championships. All finishers were rewarded with a technical tee shirt as well as a bespoke medal and a goody bag. Dan Jenkins completed the course in 3:36:08, followed by Annie Kisluk in 4:30:35, Gemma Illingworth 4:44:59 and David Goodyear in 4:49:19 Brilliant running Everyone – well done!
