About Us
How Boston Running Festival started
The first Boston Marathon UK took place on 17 April 2016. It was hailed a great success by runners, spectators and the community. It attracted almost 300 entries across three categories: the full marathon, the half marathon and a half marathon relay. The prizes for runners were sponsored by Ramsay Healthcare/Boston west hospital.
This all came about because of an idea that came up in a chance conversation. Harish Kurup, a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Pilgrim hospital, Boston, was on a flight in 2015 and was chatting to a fellow passenger. He was asked whether Boston in the UK had a marathon similar to the Boston US marathon. Harish quickly drafted the initial plan on the flight itself and set up a meeting with Councillor Richard Austin (who was Mayor of Boston at the time) on 2ndOctober 2015 at the Mayor’s office.
This was swiftly followed by the formation of Boston Marathon Association on 9thNovember 2015 with Richard Austin, Chair, Harish Kurup, Secretary, Mike Sharp, Treasurer and Guy Bull, Race Director. The committee then registered the event with England Athletics, had the course measured and certified, designed a website, liaised with a Traffic management company, completed risk assessments, had various meetings with Boston Borough Council and Lincolnshire Council. The event was formally approved by Lincolnshire Safety Advisory Group on 26 January 2016.
The main sponsor of the event came from Boston Big Local’s generous grant of £8000
The next chapter
The event went from strength to strength and in 2023 the organisers set up a 10K & 5k fun run to take place on the same day with all events finishing at Boston College.
​
After the 2024 event, a lot of committee changes took place for Boston Marathon. Sue Durrant who was the original Volunteer coordinator from the very first marathon in 2016 became Chair, aka Boss Lady. Kay Bonnell, Race Director, George Moore Health & Safety, Stuart Hellon, Treasurer along with a team of very hard working committee members, all of which are volunteers.
​
The event was rebranded as Boston Running Festival as it was felt that it was much more than a marathon. The 2025 event took place with 2115 entries across the 4 events the feedback received was overwhelming successful.
​
Of course none of this would be possible if it wasn’t for the 100 strong water station and junction Marshal volunteers that volunteer their time on race day to support the event.
Planning is currently taking place for the 2026 events, this year we have a license for 2500 runners to take part. For the very first time we are also including a market at the finish area to make even more of a great day possible for runners and supporters.