Extra places for marathon to cope with huge demand

Organisers of the first ever Plusnet Yorkshire Marathon, which is backed by the Yorkshire Post, have announced the extra places will mean there will be 6,100 runners taking part in the 26-mile course in York this autumn. The race’s initial 5,000 places were booked in just three days in January and entries have come from across the UK as well as France, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, the USA and the Caribbean.

Event director Sara Birkinshaw claimed demand has been so high that the marathon could have been “sold out twice over”.

The extra places for the marathon on October 20 will be released for sale on Friday next week. They will only be available to those registered on the official waiting list – via www.theyorkshiremarathon.com – by midnight on Monday next week.

Mrs Tomlinson, from Leeds, raised nearly £2m for charity in gruelling sporting challenges despite being diagnosed with terminal cancer before her death in 2007.

For All Events, which already stages 10k races in Leeds, York and Hull and a half-marathon in Leeds, was established by her family as a lasting legacy.