With the advent of the first official Brighton Marathon on Sunday 18th April this year, an exciting new flood of attention is already being focussed on Kemp Town. The planned route for the inaugural race starts at Preston Park and ends on Kemp Town’s seafront strip, Madeira Drive. Race director (and former Olympic 5,000m runner) Tim Hutchings says, “The route passes the city’s famous sights, such as the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Pier, with the last few miles along the seafront. It will be a fantastic day, bringing much of the same razz-matazz to the city’s streets as other major global marathon races.” The Brighton Marathon’s official website further states that the route for the race will be “held exclusively on roads and tarmac promenade” and that although initially there will be “some undulations”, the second half of the course will comparatively be “very flat” while “the last mile in particular will be along the seafront road”. This means good news for the runners, as well as for Kemp Town.

Kemp Town – one of Brighton’s most idyllic seafront locations – is no stranger to sporting events. The London to Brighton Bike Ride and countless annual automobile rallies have long been routed here, ending always on Madeira Drive. Although half-marathons are indeed often held here, there has never been an official full-blown 26-mile race and the fact that this new Brighton Marathon is purely a running event (rather than, say, cycling or driving which both require expensive, specialist equipment and vehicles) means it is therefore open to many more potential participants. Contestants from as far afield as Thailand and Australia have already paid their registration fees. Race director Hutchings claims that the first 9,000 places were already sold by 21st October last year, after selling 1,300 on the very first day of sale alone in June. The city of Brighton & Hove is expected to swell by 30,000 visitors on the day of the race, many of whom will doubtlessly utilise many of the local amenities such as restaurants, cafes, bars and of course the beach. The runners themselves will be raising money for a combined total of over 130 charities, many of whom have asked entrants to secure a minimum of £500 sponsorship each. With a current total of approximately 12,000 entrants, the event therefore has the potential to raise millions of pounds of charitable revenue. For example, Local Brightonian Joe Addison will be running the entire marathon barefoot for the children’s charity VICTA – an organisation which provides support for visually impaired children and their families. So far Mr. Addison has raised over £330 in online donations.

The marathon is generally regarded as the ultimate athletic event and is traditionally held as the last race at the Olympic Games. Historically, the name of the race comes from the legend surrounding the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, in which a Greek messenger ran the entire distance from Marathon to Athens in order to announce to the governmental assembly that the Greeks had defeated the Persians. The length of the race varied somewhat over the following centuries but in May 1921 it was globally standardised by the IAAF to be 26 miles and 385 yards (or 42.195 kilometres). The fact that Brighton now has its own full marathon (with many of the world’s top runners taking part) means that there will be more media attention cast upon the city, thereby vicariously leading to greater tourism. Businesses around Kemp Town are already experiencing a boost in sales due to an increased level of interest in the weekend of the race. Emily Beard, manager of the Lanes Hotel on Marine Parade (which overlooks Madeira Drive) points out that her hotel is “already almost totally booked for that weekend.” A definite increase in business compared to that of the same date last year when no such marathon took place. The proximity of the hotel to the marathon’s seafront finish line is clearly making it a popular choice among the runners who will doubtless be exhausted on completion of the race. “I’m confident,” she adds, “that at this rate we’ll be fully booked for the weekend of the marathon.” When asked if she feels the Brighton Marathon will prove a welcome boon to Kemp Town in general, especially if it becomes a perennial fixture in the Brighton calendar, Ms. Beard replies with an emphatic, “Definitely.”