Bury St Edmunds hosted its first official marathon on Sunday.
The 26.2 mile distance was one of four runs organised for the Bury St Edmunds running festival.
The event was run by HaverSports – behind the Haverhill Running Festival since 2014 – and sponsored by Unique Bars, which runs Flex Nightclub.
All of the distances in the Unique Bars Running Festival embarked from Abbeycroft Leisure’s Skyliner Leisure Centre, in Moreton Hall.
The Abbeycroft Leisure marathon set off at 9am on Sunday – taking runners twice under the A14, past Little Whelnetham, through Bradfield St George, Rougham, Blackthorpe and Battlies Green – and round again, before finishing back at the sports centre, where medals were handed out.
Half-an-hour later, the Knights Lowe 10k got underway from the same spot, followed at 11.30am by the Kent Blaxill half marathon, which took runners on a single lap of the route twice taken by the marathon field.
Finally, the fun run saw families complete a short loop of the footpaths on Moreton Hall.
All of the runs were staged in support of Bury Town Pastors and the My WiSH Charity, which supports West Suffolk Hospital.
The event marked the culmination of the Ourburystedmunds Festival of Sport, which kicked off on October 23, promoting a range of clubs and organisations, and including netball matches and a standalone 5km run.
Mark Cordell, chief executive of the Ourburystedmunds Business Improvement District (BID), said: “For the first event of its kind, that started as an idea over a cup of coffee about nine months ago, to have more than 1,000 people sign-up is really pleasing.
“We timed the run to coincide with the festival of sport, and its been our best week so far.
“We hope to make it a staple of the local running calendar.”
Archant’s group features editor, Liz Nice, took part in the marathon. She said: “It was well attended with a lot of people lined up at the start of the marathon and 10k events.
“It was a really nice course with lovely countryside.
“It was very different to London and Paris marathons, where the route is lined with supporters.
“Hopefully it will become an annual event and will build in popularity.”
In total, 77 runners took part in the marathon, which was won by Oliver Knott in 2:51:43. Puri Meseguer Bernal was the fastest female finisher, with a time of 3:51:21.
The half marathon was won by Stephen Dunne, while Robert Smailes took first place in the 10k and Dom Melero won a race to the finish line in the fun run.
The full marathon results were:
1 Oliver Knott 02:51:43
2 Andrew Southwood 02:58:26
3 Dave Solomon 03:04:28
4 Colin Graham 03:05:39
5 Jason Brunt 03:07:35
6 Chris Mower 03:13:35
7 Louis Suggett 03:15:03
8 Stuart Weaver 03:15:32
9 Lloyd Henderson 03:19:21
10 Matthew Axton 03:20:55
11 Mike Salter 03:24:30
12 Pete Baistow 03:27:28
13 Mark Lyttle 03:28:33
14 Robin Harper 03:28:55
15 Kallum Breward 03:34:20
16 Romas Bleda 03:34:33
17 Sam Brooke 03:35:11
18 Andy Ellis 03:35:17
19 Jamie Cracknell 03:35:47
20 Fraser Welsh 03:36:17
21 Ben Cons 03:38:26
22 Mark Prigg 03:42:46
23 Paul Osborne 03:43:06
24 Denys Baudry 03:46:41
25 Adam Bowers 03:50:34
26 Puri Meseguer Bernal 03:51:21
27 Jason Walne 03:53:32
28 Jess Farthing 03:57:06
29 David Edwards 03:58:01
30 Caroline Burgess 03:58:35
31 Shirley Fowlet 04:00:29
32 Darren Doyle 04:03:43
33 Frances Cooke 04:06:05
34 Jo Summers 04:06:05
35 John Trowell 04:10:57
36 Frances Baldwin 04:11:27
37 Christopher Parker 04:11:40
38 Michael H 04:12:24
39 Lincoln Simpson 04:13:21
40 Bhimkumar Lawati 04:14:18
41 Dee St Ledger 04:19:36
42 Linda Fullman 04:22:00
43 Steve Chapman 04:23:57
44 Gregory Ellis 04:25:12
45 Alison Bills 04:26:42
46 Chris Oxley 04:27:58
47 Steven Rendell-Read 04:33:21
48 Stuart Millar 04:33:55
49 P Rooke 04:34:11
50 Sarah Rattle 04:35:16
51 James Eastwood 04:36:45
52 Caroline Perry 04:40:07
53 Craig Ladley 04:44:31
54 James Nicholls 04:45:13
55 Chantal Lovell 04:45:41
56 Catherine Rushworth 04:46:29
57 Paul Watts 04:48:19
58 Mandy Harley 04:48:20
59 Roger Taylor 04:48:31
60 Martin Murray 04:48:31
61 Stephanie Balaam 04:53:03
62 Dan Sharps 04:54:10
63 Matt Saunders 04:59:09
64 Simon Whalley 05:03:01
65 Samantha Emms 05:08:37
66 Karen Hamilton 05:08:38
67 Amanda Goldsmith 05:11:22
68 Ian Sillett 05:11:23
69 Simon Anderson 05:25:05
70 Liz Nice 05:39:38
71 Kate Measures 05:53:41
72 Steve Coey 05:53:45
Started Julie Dring
Started Caroline Dalchow
Started Darren Cook
Started Daniel Lockwood
Started Luvuyo Mfazwe
