City Insights

Inaugural Brighton Marathon 2010

By Jennifer Drury

Steve Ovett starts the race

The inaugural Brighton Marathon was run today in glorious weather and watched by crowds of approximately 80,000 people. Olympic athlete and Brighton boy Steve Ovett started the race from Preston Park. A whopping 7,500 runners crossed the start line in the first 20 minutes.

The winners

The men’s winner was Mongolian Ser-od Ba-otochir in a time of 2:19:05, and for the women  Joanna Bryce finished in 3:03:16. Ex England footballer Danny Mills, raising funds for ASBAH steamed across the finish line in 2:43:14 in his specially adapted set of wheels.

Our heroes

But the two runners we were most excited about were The Mayor, Councillor Ann Norman and her Mace Bearer, Robert Robertson.  This was a fantastic personal achievement for Ann, who was completely without any previous experience, and had no training for the event. She kept going and was still smiling at she passed the finishing line in a time of 08:39:34. Robert’s time of 04:28:45 was really excellent too, again with no experience or training to speak of. Well done guys – we are all so proud of you.