Running News Daily

MBNA Chester Marathon have announced important changes ahead of this weekend's race due to severe weather conditions

Active Leisure Events who put on the annual MBNA Chester Marathon and Metric Marathon said all races are still due to go ahead this Sunday (October 6) but they have had to make some changes to the start and finish lines.

To ensure the event goes ahead as planned, they have made some essential changes due to this week's 'adverse' weather conditions which has seen torrential rain that has left extremely poor ground conditions at Chester Racecourse where the race is due to start and finish.

The changes are as follows:

Change of start location - Both the MBNA Chester Marathon & Metric Marathon will now start on Nuns Road instead of the Roodee, at the planned start times – 9am for the marathon & 10.15am for the metric.

Runners’ pens will be set out along this road which runs behind and parallel to the Chester Racecourse main stands. Runners will move through the starting gantry & then turn left onto New Crane Street and from here the route will continue as planned up Southview Road, Canal Street & through the city.

Change of finish location - Both races will now finish on Castle Drive, alongside the historic Chester Walls. Due to the new finish location, runners will be routed around Chester’s historic Grosvenor Park prior to following Dee Lane to the iconic run in on The Groves. There will be a marquee at the finish, where you will pick up your finisher’s medal, t-shirt & goody bag as normal.

The new start and finish areas mean that the whole route is now on hard surfaces (no grass) so whatever the weather is on race day, your trainers should be clean, even if they aren’t dry!

A spokesperson for Active Leisure Events added: "Whether it is your first or 100th marathon we promise you an amazing race, and a memorable finale to the 2019 Chester triple.