Nottingham's Full Marathon will not go ahead but the Half Marathon is on track

The Robin Hood Marathon is a unique urban and rural road race which has been running alongside the Robin Hood Half Marathon for the last 30 years.

 In previous years the marathon split off from the half marathon at the embankment and the runners crossed from the city into the county for the final 12 miles of the race. This section of the race, with relatively few runners compared to the half marathon, traditionally accommodated runners on open roads with speed restrictions. Due to an increase in the population of Nottingham and a subsequent increase in traffic flow combined with the growing participant numbers of the race, the organisers have concluded that they cannot continue to use the same route. The National Water Sports Centre has also become more widely used and thus again this has resulted in increased traffic levels on the surrounding roads which form part of the marathon route.

 The organisers feel that the marathon route is no longer a safe or viable option and have therefore decided that they will not run the full marathon in 2012. They have been working closely with Nottingham City Council to try and establish a new route in order to deliver a better, safer race experience for the Half Marathon and they are committed to re-establishing a full marathon in future years. For 2012 they will concentrate on seeking and implementing a faster, flatter course for the half marathon, again working closely with the council to try and achieve this.

 The proposed date for the 2012 Half Marathon is September 30th, this will be confirmed and communicated within the next couple of weeks.

 Over 12,000 people registered for the Robin Hood Festival of Running in 2011 with 1,424 completing the full Marathon. For more information about the race please visit www.robinhoodmarathon.co.uk .