Chester Marathon History

Chester Marathon started as an idea in the minds of friends Andy White and Chris Hulse. Keen runners and triathletes, they wanted to address the lack of a marathon in Cheshire by putting on a race that was everything they would want to run themselves.

In 2010 the first Chester Marathon was held on the late May Bank Holiday Monday. Starting and finishing at the Chester Rugby Club it ran through the village of Guilden Sutton to the Chester Millennium Greenway path. Runners followed the path to the River Dee, then returned along the same route to the finish.

The 2010 race exceeded all expectations with the 1,000 places selling out, great runner feedback and a place in the Runners World Top 10 marathons of 2010.

Building on the success of the inaugural MBNA Chester Marathon it was clear a new route needed to be found which could cope with increased numbers. Taking on runner feedback an exciting new route was developed which took runners into the centre of Chester, but kept popular features including a single start/finish venue and the finish grandstand.

2011 was the first outing for this new course, and a resounding success with a Runners World score of 95% overall.

MBNA Chester Marathon 31st May 2010
Male Winner: Julian MacDonald 2:33:05
Female Winner: Jenni Muston 3:00:48
Full results

MBNA Chester Marathon 9th October 2011
Male Winner: Ben Fish 2:27:25
Female Winner: Debbie Mason 2:48:11
Full results