This was my second time doing Brighton marathon. I did Brighton in 2016 and I really enjoyed it which is why I came back this year. I travelled down on the Saturday to collect my race number as I am not local to the area. It was a warm day on the Saturday and there was a massive queue to collect your race number. I stayed in a hotel for 2 nights and I made a weekend of it. I spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out on the beach with my sister and we also did quite a bit of walking!

I saw on the forecast that the weather on race day was going to be really warm, much warmer than last year and I thought oh no! I didn't seem to get any sleep the night before and I thought gosh how am I going to run a marathon, I felt quite tired when waiting at the start line.

The crowd support were absolutely fantastic. That is one of the reasons why I did Brighton again as there are so many crowds cheering you on, its second best to London. On the course they have music playing and bands playing. The marshalls were great and calling out my name and cheering me on, its such a great feeling and gives you a lot of encouragement.

The course starts on a bit of an incline and then it goes down hill. There are some inclines and a slight hill around mile 9 but after that it is mostly flat and down hill. It was a scorching hot day, the temperature reached to around 22 degrees! There was plenty of water stations, energy gel stations, sports drinks and there were also showers and people with hose pipes which is just what you need on a hot day!

I had a great race, I wish it had been cooler but I really enjoyed it. I beat my prevous marathon time at Brighton by 12 minutes, I was really happy with that. The goody bag is good. You get a t-shirt, nice bling, protein bar, thai crackers.

Brighton marathon is my favourite marathon, it is such a great day. I will be returning again next year.