Sunday 27th April 2025

Kickstarting a busy race report weekend over the weekend of April 27th, is Jayne and Kevin Morris’s report of their Manchester Marathon experience ⬇️

The Adidas Manchester Marathon enticed 36,000 runners this year. It was also on the same day as the London Marathon, on Sunday 27th April, right during the heat wave 🥵 . Kevin and myself were the only two Hailsham harriers running it this year, but did get spotted by a Ashford runner that knows joey, and also by a young man called Sam, that used to be a harrier, we also met up with Tony from the Heathfield runners the night before to say hi.

On the morning we decided to run it together. We found it very well organised, with water stations every 5-6k , it’s also a fairly flat course, with just a few bumps. The 150,000 spectators were amazing , cheering and encouraging the runners to keep going, and a few having street parties as well 🥳 there was also a mixture of singers, DJs and choirs on route. So overall a very well organised event.

Only complaint was the Que for the toilets before going into the holding pen, as the general public were also queuing with the runners which meant the queue was over an hour long 🤨 but in true Jayne spirit, I went into the men’s urinals, which took me 5 minutes 😂 we were doing well, trying to achieve a 5 hour run, getting to 10k in just over an hour, and 21k in 2.18, and we both ran solid to 18 miles, but by then we were out in the full mid day sun ☀️ beating down on us, and I started to hit the wall, and decided that I needed to slow, we ended up achieving 05.42.39, which were both happy with, and we did finish it, unlike the many poor runners on the side of the course 🥲 also I have decided that I’m definitely a trail runner and not a road runner, although I would go back to Manchester and do it again next year 😉

🎤 Thank you Jayne 🦸🏻‍♀️& Kevin 💪🏼.  You both were sensible and this takes both courage & bravery.  We are all extremely proud of you both, even reaching out to a neighbouring runner – a true testament to our well deserving winners of the HH Vision and Values award 🏆 together with daughter Abi 🌹

A super collection of pictures too which capture a hot day up North and a truly wonderful couple ♥️🖤