There was an unprecedented mid-race cancellation of the 11th GoFundMe Richmond RUN-FEST Marathon on Sunday (10 September) as temperatures soared in excess of 30°C in the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew with a number of runners experiencing difficulties, putting huge pressure on medical services. 

Race Director, Tom Bedford, took the difficult decision which he described in this statement on the event website as: "...the tough, yet correct decision to cancel the event. This was undoubtedly the biggest decision made in all my 25 years of organising events." 

Despite the Marathon being called off while still in progress, and the subsequent cancellation for safety reasons of the Family and Kids Mile races and the popular Richmond Music Festival and Fitness Expo in Old Deer Park, there were still 4,644 finishers in torrid conditions in the three cornerstone races – Richmond Marathon, Richmond Half Marathon, and Richmond 10K.

A large amount of planning and hot weather mitigations had been put in place and detailed pre-event advice had been issued – including the option for any marathon runners to drop down to the half marathon course, either at the start or during the race – but there were still several distressing sights as runners required urgent medical support.

On Saturday (9 September) the Kew Gardens 10K was won by US Olympian Jake Riley (pictured above) in a blistering 30:42 from Fred Woodward-Gentle (St Mary's Richmond AC, 34:07) and M40 Ed Plager (Brighton Phoenix, 35:08). The first woman – in an impressive fifth overall – was Katie Hughes (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, 36:07) followed by W35 Henrietta Marsh-Smith (West 4 Harriers, 37:06) and Rebecca Askins-Gast (unattached, 40:59). There were 1,224 finishers in just over two hours and no serious heat-related issues.

The following day saw 2,272 finishers in six hours in the Richmond Half Marathon and 1,153 in just over seven hours in the Richmond Marathon, with many of the later runners completing the distance by walking to the finish line, following advice given after the race was cancelled as a competitive event. 

The top three men in the half marathon were M40 Jay Lidbetter (Striders of Croydon, 1:15:49), Tom Starck (Wycombe Phoenix Harriers, 1:17:50 PB) and Ed Plager (1:19:00) – enjoying a second outing and a second visit to the podium. The leading women were Louise Small (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, 1:20:46), Frances Merry (St Mary's Richmond AC, 1:28:09) and W35 Kimiko Ninomiya (Hot Boys Athletics, 1:29:13).

In the aborted marathon race, the leading finishers were Ryan Hogan (West 4 Harriers, 2:37:50), M55 Yee Kong Leung (unattached, 2:47:51) and Cameron Fell (unattached, 2:50:05) while the top three women were W35 Jayne Nisbet (Edinburgh AC, 3:07:33), W60 Kate Taylor (3:07:53) and W40 Katarzyna Madej (3:18:31).

Results and previous event reports are available via the runABC South race listing here. 

Photo courtesy Richmond RUN-FEST on Facebook