THOUSANDS of runners will head for Bournemouth this weekend for the seventh annual Bournemouth Marathon Festival.

The event is firmly established in the running calendar and will take place on Saturday and Sunday.

Organisers are currently in the process of sending out information to residents, workers and visitors to the area who may be affected by road and lane closures as well as parking and access restrictions.

They have divided the area up into four zones.

Zone 1, covering the Tuckton and Southbourne areas, has various restrictions in place between 5am on October 5 and 3pm the following day.

Zone 2, covering the Boscombe area, is affected between 6am on October 5 and 6pm on Monday October 7 and Zone 3 in the town centre will see disruption between 6am on October 5 and 6pm on October 6.

The Canford Cliffs area is Zone 5 and it will be affected between 10.30am on October 5 and 6pm on the following day.

Full details are available on the website and organisers said: “The event organisers, in association with BCP Council, have striven to minimise the disruptive impact of the event to allow those directly affected to carry on with their daily routine with as little inconvenience as possible.

“Every effort will be made to keep traffic flowing as freely and smoothly as possible. Emergency Service vehicles will not be affected by any of the restrictions.”

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your co-operation in this matter and apologise for any inconvenience which may be experienced.”

The popular event has a total of eight different races this year and will attract participants from all over the country.

It is one of the most scenic of all the UK marathon events with long stretches of the races taking place along the seafront.

Entrants run on Boscombe pier and even into the Lower Gardens in the town centre.

Sunday’s marathon and half marathon will be supported by a Supersonic 10k event on the Saturday afternoon and a dusk Supernova 5k event.

There will be races for junior runners ranging from a kids kilometre for three to six-year-olds to a junior 5k for children aged 11-18.

The official charity of the event is Macmillan Cancer Support. Details from bournemouthmarathon.com