THOUSANDS of runners swarmed to the city’s seafront for an annual racing event.

The Brighton 10K celebrated its 35th year and attracted more than 2,000 runners to the city, all searching for a flat course and fast race times.

Race director Keith Donno, 64, said: “We had around two-and-a-half thousand people sign up for this year’s race, and a huge amount of those are repeat entries, so we must be doing something right.

“People get to come to Brighton for the day, we usually get good weather and it’s a nice, flat course so runners can really push for new personal best times.”

Keith has been the race director of the event for five years, but has his sights set on a far longer stint in the role.

He said: “My predecessor did 30 years as race director so I’m not very far through my sentence.”

The race hosted an inter-county competition which was entered by many of the top runners from counties in the South East of England.

It was won by Adam Clark, 26, who completed the course in a time of just over 30 minutes.

Adam, who normally runs for Hastings Athletics Club and was representing Sussex yesterday, said: “I haven’t done this race for 10 years, but this year it fitted in with my training schedule so I used it as a hard training run.

“It’s perfect for match runners as it’s very competitive, particularly behind the leading pack, so people can run with others and really push each other.”

The race was cancelled in 2016 because of strong winds, but showed no signs of a repeat event as runners enjoyed sunny conditions and mild temperatures.

The route is an “out and back” course with no hills, having a total vertical ascent of just six metres.

As a result, many runners celebrated new personal best times as they crossed the finish line, including Lewes Athletic Club runner Nick Williams who finished in under 46 minutes.

The 58-year-old said: “It was virtually perfect conditions, I don’t do many 10K races but I did this one last year and had to come back again, and I’m really happy to have got a new PB.

“Four years ago I was quite ill and so I have used running to get my health back up again.

“It’s good for mental and physical health, it gets you out the door and it’s a very supportive community, so I would recommend it to anyone.”

The event also had more than 150 entries from Vegan Runners UK, who were in Brighton for their annual group meeting.

Vegan Runner Hugo Carpendale visited the city from Bristol for the race, and added an extra competitive element by running against his 16-year-old son, Tom.

Hugo, 54, said: “There’s not really any competition to be honest, I see him at the start of the race and then at the end again, but he will have finished five or so minutes before me, he’s much faster.

“We came down on Friday night for the AGM then did the Park Run in Hove yesterday and the 10K today.

“I thought it was going to be really cold but it really warmed up and felt more like April to me.”

Hugo also spoke about his experiences as a vegan runner.

He said: “I have been vegan for 30 years but only got into running as I got older, but I know that some professional runners actually become vegan because they find that a plant-based diet really helps with their recovery after races.

“Protein and carbohydrates are very important as a runner, and you can get plenty of that from a vegan diet.”

Race director Keith Donno is now planning to grow the event for next year.

He said: “It was originally just a club event but we have changed that and made it more of a commercial race to bring it up to the 21 century. Next year I’m hoping to increase the number of entries to more than three-and-a-half thousand runners.”