The Lewes Marathon

[Sweder]

Good point re the logo, Dan. Those boys are earning their corn this season, and no mistake. The latest in a long line of excellent posters features below.

2014 is what you might call an 'invitational'. It's a test event and a private affair, so we can get away with quite a lot on this first effort.

In writing to potential sponsors today it occurred to me any 'official' race might draw upwards of 200 runners. If we run a half, you could double that. This would mean road closures, heaps of marshals and, yes, dreaded insurance. It will also mean UKA sanctions, entry fees, administration ... and into a fresh hell we go.

Road closures is a big issue. I've reached out tentatively to Lewes District Council to sound this out. We won't need to close anything for 50-odd runners finishing in a 90 minute window up 200 yards of high street (which has little to no vehicular traffic on a Sunday). In 2015, however, and in order to bring the half home to the same point (from the opposite direction, too, which is kind of cool) we would need to cover quite a bit of road - just over a mile, all told. I can't see us avoiding partial road closures for that one.

In theory this won't be anything like as well subscribed as the big road races. The course is tough, technical and, at that time of year, a beast underfoot. In 2013 Steyning recorded 208 full finishers and 225 half finishers. We might be looking at similar numbers after a year or two.

In short, I need to win the lottery/ retire so I can give this my full attention.