When pre-entries closed for the two huge running events over Easter – the Easter Festival of Running and the Manx Mountain Marathon – the total number of entries taken was very nearly a grand.
There are 634 entries for the Festival and 355 for the Mountain Marathon (including the Half Marathon), making a quite astonishing total of 989 entries across the two events.
Easter running
When you add in those who will be travelling to the Island for these events but not actually running, I should think that these two events will bring something like 500 visitors to the Isle of Man, many of whom will be staying for at least three nights.
That is an incredible figure, with the sport of athletics providing a very significant early-year boost to the tourism sector.
The pubs should do well too!
Weather
The weather forecast looks quite mixed – a fairly typical early spring mixture of sunshine and showers – but let’s hope we are lucky and we get more of the sunshine than the showers!
Clear conditions would also be very welcome for the Mountain Marathon on Saturday.
Unfortunately my own commitments with the Easter Festival mean that I will not see any of the Mountain Marathon, but there are always lots of photographers out and about across the length of the route and I’m looking forward to catching up with the news and coverage of what should be another great event.
The 60th Easter Festival looks like being a cracking celebration with huge support once again from visiting runners especially University teams, but also a fantastic local entry.
I’m pretty sure it’s the biggest-ever local entry which is brilliant to see. If this is the first time you have taken part in the Easter Festival, enjoy every minute of it in the amazing atmosphere that is always created by the visiting student teams!
Extensive coverage of the Festival, including my video footage, will appear on the official event Facebook group and will also be shared here over the course of the weekend.
Best of luck to all involved, competitors and officials alike. Have a great Easter weekend!
3 Comments