20th anniversary for Eastbourne Half Marathon

The race will be celebrating its 20th anniversary, and is hopefully on its way to be a sell-out with over 1000 runners from near and far participating.

Organisers Sue Fry and Liz Lumber, of Eastbourne Runs, are hoping the event will once again inspire all abilities to take part, whether elite, fun or charity runners.

Sue and Liz are familiar to Eastbourne’s running community as they also organise the popular Eastbourne 10k, taking place for the seventh time on Sunday, June 22, 2025.

The half marathon’s scenic course starts and finishes at Princes Park, taking in much of Eastbourne’s glorious seafront and the harbour. It wouldn’t be right not to mention ‘the hill’ which runners must conquer in the early stages of the race as they head up towards Beachy Head, before the ‘what’s goes up, must come down’ theory as they take a gasp of breath in relief as they begin their steep descent of Upper Dukes Drive.

Last year’s men’s course record was smashed by Simon Heath of Brighton Phoenix in 1hr 19min 42sec. The female winner was Annika Green from The Lonely Goats Run Club in 1.28.22. The female course record is currently held by local triathlete Yvette Grice in1.22.31.

Once again there is a £100 cash prize incentive up for grabs to the fastest time breaking the male and female course records.

Every runner will receive a colourful bespoke jigsaw piece themed medal, with 2025’s piece being the second of the set of seven.

There will also be podium, team, youth and age group prizes, plus a number of spot prizes to keep everyone motivated and inspired to complete the 13.2-mile distance. Once the runners have caught their breath, they can claim their nourishing and warming hot chocolate served by local catering business ‘The Bean Bike’.

St Wilfrid's Hospice is the event's chosen charity, and Eastbourne Runs will be making a donation from their profits, as well as runners adding to the total with their just giving pages.

This year, the event will be missing one of the core team who has been involved since the event began, Andy Holter, who sadly passed away this year. Some of the runners will be participating in his memory.

Sue Fry said: "We are very lucky we have our main sponsor, Reid & Dean, supporting us once again, as without them we would struggle to host the event in the way that we do."

Thanks go to the vast number of volunteers, sponsors and supporters including The Victoria Baptist Church Team, Freshwipes, Mantra Training,Tempo Run Shop, South Downs Scaffolding, Rehab 4 U, The Graphic Corner, GLS, David Webb, Eastbourne Sea Cadets, Ashprint, Hedley Visick, STIX, Pentacle Drummers, the bagpipes, Eastbourne Rovers A/C and The Bean Bike.

If you’re looking for a new year challenge, there is still time to enter by visiting the Eastbourne Runs website. Participants must be over the age of 17 eastbourneruns.co.uk