Half marathon runners EMN-210531-135722005Half marathon runners EMN-210531-135722005
Half marathon runners EMN-210531-135722005

Boston Marathon: Hundreds cheer on runners

Hundreds turned out to cheer from the streets as one of the first big events since the first lockdown took place in the town on Monday (May 31).

Around 2,000 runners took part in the Boston Marathon and associated races, 1,000 runners in the full marathon, 800 in the half marathon, and 200 taking part in the 5k fun run.

Organisers put in place rigorous procedures to make sure the marathon went off safely – and they paid off as the event was a huge success.

Mike Sharp, operations manager for Boston Marathon, said on Monday: “It’s gone really well. We had excellent weather and a lot of happy faces. And we’ve also had loads of personal bests.

We had a great crowd, a really good turn-out and it’s all gone to time.

We couldn’t set up last night because of the number of people in the park with the weather, so we were here to do it at 4am!

“The event is good for the whole town. All the hotels are full. Something like this makes such a huge difference for the town.”

“It’s been a great effort by all the team involved who have spent many, many hours making sure everything is right.”

He said the support of locals along the route, particularly those in the villages who set up water stations, was incredible and helped make the event such a popular one.

“We are very proud of the event we have put on, and of the support the town and the county has given us.”

He said they were very grateful to all the suppliers for their continued support, including Lidl, who stepped in on the morning of the race to offer extra water supplies because of the weather.

The men’s winner was William Strangeways of Lincoln Wellington Athletic Club, with a time of 2 hours 22 minutes, and the women’s winner was Abbey Van Duck of South Derbyshire Road Runners with a time of 2.48.

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