Marathon runners are used to a few ups and downs. However, the Sussex Trail Events Multi-Storey Car Park Marathon at the Victoria Centre in Southend on Sunday, 8th February 2026, was on a completely different level!

In fact, it was on four levels, affording bracing sea views at the top of the car park before circling down to level 4 and back up to Level 8 for a total of 63 laps of concrete chaos. Many runners were dressed as traffic cones or parking wardens to celebrate the unusual venue.

Over 100 started this mad event, and 106 finished in 6:20:48. Three more managed between 15 and 20 miles before registering the dreaded DNF. One who (un)comfortably beat the official six-hour time limit, despite badly blistered ankles, was Ellie Colman (5:37:21).

Ellie, who dressed as a Penalty Charge Notice, posted this explanation on social media: "No, we didn’t get to run up the spiral (fortunately!). We got to run from level 4 to level 8, with each level split into upper and lower levels. So you might say we levelled up…and then down!!

"It was great company the whole day, but particularly in those last few hours when the crowd thins out, and people are really digging deep and helping each other get around. The best thing about these weird and wonderful events with so many laps is the camaraderie. Oh, and that I can say I’ve run the only multi-storey car park marathon in the world (probably)!"

Setting a blistering pace at the front was Sebastien Mahia (3:07:14) from Belgium. Neil Warne (3:25:24) and Rodrigo Santos (3:26:49) also finished under 3:30:00. The top three women beat four hours: Bonnie Rye (3:51:25), Natalie Light (3:53:53) and Karen Lea (3:56:31).

The course featured many tight turns and climbed and descended 1,000m (3,280ft), which is only just short of the height of Mount Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) in Wales!

Race organiser, Jason McCardle, said: "It's a bit quirky, it's just different. A lot of these people have done hundreds of marathons, and they've been on this road, that road, on trails. This sort of course will be more mental than physical towards the end – the repetition of running up and then running back down again, and there's not much to look at. It's quite difficult because it's concrete, not tarmac, so it's actually going to take it out of their legs."

Full results are available at Timing Monkey here.

Details of all Sussex Trail Events are available here.    

 Photo courtesy of @rarcher262/Ellie Colman