Sunday 5th March – 10am

Runners and organisers of the Eastbourne Half Marathon could not have wished for better weather for the 19th running of this race.

More than 850 runners took part on the scenic course which takes in much of Eastbourne’s beautiful seafront and Sovereign Harbour.

*Now in its nineteenth year, the Eastbourne Half Marathon is very much a community event, aimed at runners of all abilities with a course that provides beautiful sea views 🌊, music 🎶, great support, and a fun, friendly atmosphere 🎉.

The ethos behind the Eastbourne Half Marathon is to raise money for charities and local good causes and through the past few years over £140,000 has been donated to charity.  This year the event supported St Wilfrid’s Hospice 💚 with a whopping 850 runners taking part.  The race, under new race management from Smallfry Events, even arranged for perfect running conditions – the first time in many years that the sun has shone ☀️ 

Many Harriers 🖤❤️ took part on the day either through running for a set time, marshalling or taking on the tough, but rewarding task of pacing others to complete the distance, run special times and in some cases, new personal bests 🌟 

As a club we were truly honoured to witness plenty of amazing achievements on Sunday and huge support by team black and red for this local event on iur doorstep.

First Harrier home, running his first ever half marathon saw Dave Garratt 🏊🏻 🚴‍♀️ 🏃🏻 finish in 1:27:33 followed by the ever awesome Woolley 🧶 in 1:33:55.  Oli Chandler ⭐️ produced a sensational run to finish with a new PB in 1:38:04 with our first female Harrier home, Audrey 💙 racing to a new personal best in 1:38:37.  Ruby Murry 🍛 (Don Currie) ran a sterling performance crossing the line in 1:40:41, whilst our Bassett Hound 🐶 (Mark Bassett) out on a training run, finishing in 1:41:37.  It was great to see Harriers,

Robin 🏄🏼‍♂️ 1:43:20 and Chris Little 🔥 1:43:24 sharing the half marathon journey by running together, both finishing with fabulous times (Chris 5 minutes wuicker than 2023 😮) and a new PB for Robin.  #teambruv 💪🏼, Gary Pope 🚘 , made full use of those January accumulator miles finishing in 1:44:11 and a new PB, alongside Leeland 🚴‍♀️ also running a new PB in 1:45:29.  The amazing Charlie Long 👩🏻‍⚕️ is back on top form and this showed as she ran a speedy 1:46:56 with the ever improving Mumma Roo 🐾 (Tracy Erridge) flying over the line in 1:47:20, and BIG Si a well deserved 1:49:08.  Steph Bassett 🧁 has been training exceptionally hard this year so it was a huge delight to see her gain a new PB of 1:55:16 with Abi Morris 🌷 speeding over the line in 1:57:41 and Tasha Hawkes 🍹(a last minute entry) running 1:57:42.  The legend that is Pete Daws 💫 made it look easy finishing in 2:06:34 joined by team mates Nemo 🐠 2:06:41 and Shaun 🐘 2:06:41 who completed our amazing Harriers Team 🖤❤️

Our wonderful pacers on the day were Coach Ads 🦈 & Matt Southam – Sub 1:30, Pins and Puns ((Graham 😂 and Wendy 🦵🏻 ) – Sub 2:00, Coach Michelle 👧🏼and Ladies Vice Captain Lisa PH 🧡 – Sub 2:30.  

We also had some of our members give up their time to marshal, providing support and encouragement to the event and all the incredible runners.

Thank you to Adam Mansbridge and Hannah Banana 🍌 for the awesome pictures and their endless cheering.

On behalf of Hailsham Harriers we would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to

Sue and Liz at smallfry events for hosting a magical day 💜 See you next year.

Smallfry events also hosts the Eastbourne 10K, scheduled for June 23rd 2024 and entries are now open.