World's First Kilomathon A Success In Nottingham

20 MAR2010

Martin Williams set the first ever Kilomathon world record today winning the inaugural 26.2km road race, which took place between Nottingham and Derby, in a time of 1hr 26mins. In what proved to be an extremely tight race from start to finish, crossed the finish line just 3 seconds ahead of Christopher Wilson from Paisley with Tim Hartley finishing in third with a time of 1hr 27mins 14secs.

Finishing ahead of strong competition, 34 year old Sarah Harris from Long Eaton took the women's title with an impressive time of 1hr 39mins 19secs, 45 seconds in front of Scotland's Jennifer Maclean, with Christine Howard from Matlock taking third place in 1hr 42mins 23secs.

The race took place on Mother's Day, and with so many mums taking part, it was only fitting that the first female athlete to cross the finish line was mother of three, Sarah. In recognition of her amazing achievement on such a special day, along with the winning trophy, she was also presented with a bouquet of flowers on behalf of Kilomathon organisers, GSi Events.

"Winning the race is amazing, this is definitely one Mother's Day I'll never forget. The support of my children has been fantastic both during my training and at the race today and I know that the families of all the mothers running will be extremely proud of their efforts, especially today" Sarah commented.

The Kilomathon got underway at 9am with 4,200 runners setting off from outside the Nottingham University grounds on a dry, bright day with temperatures around 11°C.

The race took the participants towards Long Eaton and on through Draycott before passing through the very scenic grounds of Elvaston Castle. The final stages saw the competitors travel down Shardlow Road and through the village of Alvaston before heading along London Road to the finish line close to Pride Park Stadium in Alvaston Park. The world's first Kilomathon saw thousands of entrants come from all over the UK and Ireland and attracted runners from European countries such as Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, and the Netherlands. Some had even travelled from as far as the United Arab Emirates, Canada, USA and Brazil, such was the attraction of the opportunity to run in this unique road race event.

Geoff Sims, Chief Executive of GSi Events, organisers of the Kilomathon, commented:

"The first Kilomathon has been a fantastic success. We wanted to create a road race that would be recognised as 'the perfect race distance' and thanks to the amazing support of all of those who have been involved - the runners, the volunteers, the spectators, local authorities and our sponsors, we believe that Kilomathon England has laid the foundations for a new classic race format. The future could see hundreds of thousands of people around the world running Kilomathons every year as well as Marathons and Half Marathons."

In total, 4,186 runners completed the first ever Kilomathon. During the race, participants ate around 5,000 bananas, drank almost 35,000 bottles of water provided by sponsor Strathmore Water and consumed over 4,000 Zipvit energy gels. Following the overwhelming success of Kilomathon England 2010, preparation is now underway for the next event in the 26.2km road race series which will take place on October 3, 2010 in Scotland.

There are still a few places available for Kilomathon Scotland which will be starting and finishing in the Royal Highland Centre in Ingliston and going over the spectacular Forth Road Bridge. Anyone interested in taking part should visit the official website for more details and to register.