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| Oops! The Hastings Marathon on Sunday will not be the first actual marathon race to be run in Sussex.
John Gill and Paul Froud have jogged my memory and pointed out that in the 1980s the Worthing & District Harriers organised marathon races over their Goring course from 1983 to 1986 with a special race to celebrate the Centenary of Worthing Council in 1990.
The races were held in June, not a very popular month for Marathon running, but they still attracted fields of around 1000 runners.
Thanks to Alan Grove at Worthing we have pieced together some more information.
Brighton & Hove’s Sam Lambourne the owner of the Jog Shop in Brighton does, I am certain, however hold the record for a the fastest time for a Sussex marathon.
In 1984 Sam (pictures during his 1984 run) clocked 2:22:24 when winning the Worthing race by seven minutes from the home club’s Dennis Wright.
The fastest Sussex woman in a Sussex race is Worthing’s Tracy Howard who clocked 2:52:23 at Worthing. Both Sam and Tracy ran for Great Britain in marathons events and Sam remains the fourth fastest Sussex marathon runner of all time with 2:18:59 in 1983 while Tracy’s 2:46:27 also in 1983 is the fifth fastest Sussex time, five minutes behind Julia Armstrong who is running at Hastings on Sunday.
In 1984 when the European Veteran’s championships were held at the Withdean Stadium the Marathon was organised by Alan Grove at run Barns Green but the winner then was not able to match Sam’s time.
If anyone else has details of other Sussex Marathon’s I would be very pleased to hear.
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