Race Date: Sunday 26th October 2025

Back in 2016, Mark Gray was chugging along in the Leicester Marathon 2016 looking at a 2:42 finish when he and the other two leading runners were inexplicably sent the wrong way resulting in a mile and a half detour. Perhaps the city’s attempts at staging major events should be buried along with Richard III as the same sort of thing has happened again as Richard Carter-Pearson reports.

With a pb of 01:15:42 set at Loughborough in February, Richard went into this race hoping to lower this by running about 74 minutes so it’s clear that he wasn’t here just for a trot out and to admire the views.

The race starts and finishes in Victoria Park, next to the University of Leicester where he went to University. It heads downhill into the city centre, then out towards Watermead Park, before winding back to the city centre through parks and along canal paths, with a tough final mile uphill back to “Vicky Park”.  It’s mostly flat, apart from a stinger at 8 miles and the final mile. Conditions on the day were blustery with a notable headwind in the second half which was exacerbated by some solo running.

Except that a monumental cock-up in the first mile scuppered any pb hopes for him and many, many others. Competitors were supposed to take a left turn from St George’s Way onto Charles Street but instead continued onto an open and busy section of St George’s Way. No barriers, tape or marshals directed them onto Charles Street. Luckily some locals ahead figured out how to get them back on course. This added around 400-500m with estimates varying depending on Richard’s mood. (Editor: Richard’s Strava suggests that it was just over 400m or 84 seconds based on his pace at that stage in the race). Thousands of runners also went the wrong way before someone did something about it.

The problems with the course didn’t end there. The 10k had started at the same time as the half and further chaos ensued as the leaders in the half caught up with the tail enders in the city centre with 5k to go. The course was too narrow in places to get past described by Richard as like the second lap at Endcliffe Parkrun, without the nice woods.

Just writing about the race has made Richard mardy again and he will definitely not be going back recommending that everyone should steer well clear of this one. Profuse apologies from the race organisers but no-one will be getting their entry fee of nearly £38 back. Inevitably, the mishap reached the local news BBC News Leicestershire/Apology after runners sent wrong way during race. This event also staged the Leicestershire 10k and Half Marathon Championships so would have had a race permit with county officials in attendance; a race of this stature would be expected to have a lead car or bike and marshals at major junctions .

Amazingly, despite events, Richard came away with a chip time of 01:16:33 and with his Strava half marathon split showing 01:15:00 so Leicester owes him a personal best. The half marathon was won by David Bishop (Derby) with 01:08:07 with Lucy Pearson (Unatt) 01:24:52 with 3197 finishers. Richard was the only Steel City reported as running the half with none in the 10k which had 1418 finishers. Full results: Run Leicester 10k and Half Marathon 2025