Thousands of residents will be under starter's orders as the Reading Half-Wit Marathon looks set to continue well into the future.

Council Leader and Chief Executive David Sutton took time out from his name calling spat with Reading East MP Rob Wilson to tell us that he was very excited at the prospect:

"We asked our consultants if for a few extra hundred thousand in consultancy fees they could tailor the one way IDR, or Great Sutton Boulevard as we're planning on calling it, to host future Reading Half-Wit Marathons. They've done a wonderful job and come up with a design that will mean the course will be exactly 5 times around the one way IDR, er, if you add on an extra couple of miles. But just think how much we'll save organising the route in future. We won't even have to close the road because it'll be gridlocked anyway."

Former Half-wit Marathon organiser John Howarth told us of his plans to take part next year:

"I've always wanted to exercise my prerogative and now that I've stood down from the council to spend more time with my consultancies I'm looking forward to entering. I will however be running in the opposite direction to the flow of public opinion, but there's no change there."