THIS year’s Colchester Half Marathon raced to another success, with more than 2,500 runners taking part and an estimated £500,000 raised for charity.

The inconvenience it might have caused motorists or shoppers for a few hours on a Sunday morning pales into insignificance when you consider the good it has done for our town and a host of good causes.

While the runners should be praised for taking part and the training, and in some cases fundraising efforts, they put in, it is the organisers who should take the plaudits.

In the space of a few years, Colchester Half Marathon has become very much part of the amateur running world’s calendar.

Colchester is perfect for such an event, with North Hill and East Hill offering a challenge for tired legs, the perfect backdrop for spectators to enjoy the race in the town centre and the rolling countryside to the north of the town to offer a contrast in scenery and running conditions.

The benefit of such an event in terms of money being spent in the high street is almost impossible to calculate accurately.

But sums like that are academic really.

The true value of such an event is the money it helps charities to raise, the extra visitors to our borough, and in particular Colchester town centre, and, most importantly, the sense of community it creates.

It shows Colchester in its most professional, creative, welcoming and attractive light.

Top marks to the organisers once again.

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