Meet the elite runner from Grappenhall hosting world first event

Delivered by events company RunThrough, the race expects to see up to five thousand runners take part on the day on September 24, attracting a potential 10,000 spectators to the starting line of Bank Park.

As the scale of the event has expected large number of entries, RunThrough decided to release places for the half marathon event in a staggered ballot system throughout the year, with the final ballot taking place next week, Monday, July 31.

With excitement building for the major event and more than 20,000 entries having been received so far, we thought we would speak to one of the faces behind RunThrough who is making it all happen.

Co-founder of the business Ben Green has been an avid runner his entire life, first starting out at Warrington Athletics Club at the young age of 13.

Pictured: Ben Green (right) and his dad Graham Green (left) (Image: Supplied)

“I am from a family of successful runners. When my dad was 12, he broke the age world record for the 1500 metres and was national champion for cross country,” he said.

“I was watching my dad and my uncle running about and I was about 13 when I actually started going down to the Warrington track and started training with the group there.”

The 36-year-old grew up in Grappenhall and attended St Wilfred’s primary school before moving onto Lymm High School.

Despite having re-located to Manchester in recent years, he still goes running with his dad in Appleton-Thorn daily along the country roads.

RunThrough hosted the Warrington Running Festival last year which began and finished at the golden gates on Bank Park (Image: Supplied)

“Between myself and my uncle, we had all of the track records at Warrington Athletics Club for 400 metres all the way up to marathon.”

Ben ran for England at an international level and broke two world records for the fastest father and son in Half Marathon & Marathon in London.

He scored a sports scholarship at Loughborough University and went on to meet his business partner Matt Wood – the pair would then go on to create RunThrough from their mutual passion of running.

Co-owners of RunThrough, Ben Green (left) and Matt Wood (right) met while studying at Loughborough University (Image: Supplied)

RunThrough is now the biggest running event organiser in the country and sees more than 200,000 runners attend its events each year.

“It is ten years since we started RunThrough and it has just gone ballistic since then. We just thought it was time to create a foundation out of it.

“There are huge links between running and its health benefits, especially the mental side of it. A lot of my enjoyment from doing what I do is seeing people get running.”

Part of the RunThrough foundation’s initiative is to encourage people who have never run before to put on a pair of trainers and get out there.

“I have been running my whole life so I know I would be lost without it mentally and motivationally; I know what it does to my life,” Ben added.

Ben comes from a family of elite runners, many who hold world records in distance running (Image: Supplied)

Ben spoke of one of the biggest perks to the sport is the simplicity and lack of expense involved.

“All you need is a pair of trainers. One reason I would hear a lot is people not being able to afford the entry fee to races, so I thought, let’s make it free and see what happens.”

With 99 per cent of the races being paid events, by keeping this free Ben said their hopes are that this will begin to grow the running market in Warrington.

“We want to go to a town like Warrington, get everybody running there, and from that we have a race there that is set for the future.

“The race will not always be free there every year, we will be moving the initiative onto a new part of the country and doing the exact same, but it is starting in Warrington.”

Co-founders of RunThrough, Ben and Matt held an event at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park this year (Image: Supplied)

The company have also worked with the council to gain ‘priority postcodes’ so that ‘anyone from a low income or deprived area of Warrington gets an automatic entry from the ballot’.

2,500 entries are left to be taken from the upcoming ballot and there will be a final reserve ballot held in August for people who can no longer make the race and want to give their place back.

“This is probably the biggest event the town has ever had in such a short five-hour time frame. Potentially 10,000 people will be in Bank Park that day,” Ben said, adding that in footfall it is expected to be five times bigger than last year’s running festival.

The free marathon event that will be held in Warrington in September is expected to be five times bigger than last years Running Festival (Image: Supplied)

Speaking of what it means to host an event of this scale in his hometown, the 36-year-old said:

“It is massive, a lot of these people I went to school with or grew up with. To actually launch the whole thing, it just felt right to do it in Warrington.

“It is a great town; I have lived there my whole life. It is going to be such a good thing for the town.”

As well as attracting footfall to the town and encouraging more people to take up running, the co-founder said up to £250,000 of charity fundraising is expected to come from the event alone.

To find out more visit warringtonrunningfestival.com/ 

The final ballot will be open at the end of July for entry to the free Warrington Running Festival (Image: Supplied)