Nearly 9,000 people take part in Brighton Marathon
The organisers of Brighton’s Marathon 2014 will have been looking to the skies this morning with their fingers crossed, hoping that the rain held off to allow the 26.2 mile run to transpire without it becoming a dismal, soggy affair.
Luckily, the heavens remained closed (more or less) during the race and 8,670 people taking part and the thousands of spectators were able to ‘enjoy’ the day without being drenched in rain.
Naturally, the elite runners blazed a trail that makes us ordinary humans scratch our heads in disbelief when we consider how they can run that fast after 26 miles. The men’s race was won by Kenya’s William Cherbor who finished in a time of two hours, nine minutes and 25 seconds. Dominic Kangor finished second and Wilfred Murgor was third, making it a clean sweep for Kenya. The dominance and class of Kenyan runners was confirmed when Alice Milgo crossed the line in a time of two hours, 35 minutes and 32 seconds.
As one would expect, there were many people dressed in outfits that can only be described as obstrusive, but one of the most eye catching participants was carrying a tiger on his back (not a real animal). Paul Goldstone is raising money for Worth More Alive across a series of marathons to raise awareness for the plight of Bengal tigers, he told Latest Sport:”we’re going to lose them, just as we’re going to lose rhinos, that’s the simple fact.
This may be considered drastic action, but whatever I may go through in the next 120 miles is nothing compared to what tigers are going through – it’s desperate times for them.”
In the lead up to the big event we spoke to 26 year old jewellery designer Amanda Chalmers who took part in the marathon on behalf of Cystic Fibrosis Trust. In September 2012 Amanda underwent a double lung transplant after she caught a chest infection while travelling. “I decided to run the Brighton marathon before I had a lung transplant. I was on oxygen and wanted to get better for the next year [to compete in the race] and didn’t, got worse and then had to have a transplant, afterwards I thought I had no more excuse so decided to sign back up again.”
