The UK runs over 500 half marathons a year, which is either brilliant or paralysing depending on how you look at it. There’s a race almost every weekend, most of them are well organised, and a good number of them are genuinely excellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is that the best ones sell out. Cardiff, Brighton, Hackney and Liverpool all disappear months ahead, and the Great North Run runs a ballot that closes long before most people have thought about next year. By the time you decide you want to run a big UK half, you’ve often already missed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here are ten of the best half marathons in the UK for 2027 \u2014 the fast ones, the beautiful ones, and the ones worth building a season around. They’re listed in calendar order rather than ranked, because that’s more useful when you’re actually planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Planning your 2027 season?<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n Add your planned races to RunningLog, tag your A goals, and see the whole year at a glance \u2014 with your past results and PBs alongside. Free to start.\n <\/p>\n Plan Your Season Free \u2192<\/a>\n <\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n A note on dates:<\/strong> All ten 2027 dates below are confirmed. What isn’t guaranteed is availability \u2014 several of these sell out or close their ballots months ahead, so check entry status before you plan around one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The season opener.<\/strong> Brighton is the first big half of the UK year and one of the flattest courses on this list, running out along the seafront and back with the English Channel beside you for almost the entire distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It draws around 12,000 runners with a 3:15 cut-off, and entry sits in the \u00a345-55 range. The flat profile makes it a genuine PB option, and its February slot makes it an excellent fitness test if you’re building toward a spring marathon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> Early-season PBs and London Marathon build-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> A seafront course means wind, and February on the south coast can be bitter. It also sells out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the UK’s great city races.<\/strong> Bath runs a flat, fast two-lap course through a UNESCO World Heritage city, with Georgian architecture on all sides and around 15,000 runners filling the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The atmosphere is the draw here \u2014 Bath is compact, the crowds are dense the whole way round, and the whole city effectively shuts down for it. The 3:30 cut-off is among the more generous on this list, which makes it a solid choice for a first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> First-timers, and anyone who wants a beautiful city race without London-scale logistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> Two laps isn’t for everyone, and March in the West Country can be wet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stadium finish.<\/strong> Running since 1983, Reading is one of the longest-established halves in the country and finishes inside the town’s football stadium \u2014 which, after 13 miles, is a genuinely lifting way to end a race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was also one of the first town races in Britain to include wheelchair athletes, and it retains a strong inclusive character. The course is undulating rather than flat, so treat it as a good hard effort rather than a guaranteed PB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> A memorable finish and an accessible spring race close to London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> The rolling terrain \u2014 it’s not the fast course some assume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most fun you’ll have at a UK half.<\/strong> Hackney has grown into one of London’s biggest and best-loved road races, and it has a character entirely its own \u2014 closer to a street festival than a road race, with sound systems, block-party energy and a field that reflects one of the most diverse parts of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The course is relatively flat and takes in Hackney Marshes, Victoria Park and the surrounding streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> Atmosphere, and anyone who finds traditional road races a bit joyless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> It sells out quickly, and May in London can be warmer than you’ve trained for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The biggest race in the north west.<\/strong> Part of the Great Run series, the Great Manchester Run has been a fixture of the UK calendar for decades and pairs its famous 10K with a half marathon on the same day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The course is flat and fast through the city centre and out toward Old Trafford, and the crowd support is exactly what you’d expect from Manchester \u2014 loud, wet, and entirely undeterred by either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> A big-event feel in the north, and a well-drilled Great Run operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> The 10K runs alongside it, so the early miles can be congested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fastest course in the UK.<\/strong> If you want a personal best, this is the race on this list to enter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Edinburgh Half has a roughly 90-metre net descent, which is the largest of any major UK half marathon and translates into real, measurable seconds. The course runs out of the city and along the East Lothian coast, finishing at Musselburgh, and the combination of downhill gradient, cool Scottish May weather and coastal flatness produces a lot of PBs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> PB hunting, full stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> Coastal wind can undo the gradient advantage on a bad day. And net downhill still means quad damage if you attack it early. Note it falls just a week after Manchester and a fortnight after Hackney \u2014 May 2027 is congested, so choose rather than stack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n London’s other great half.<\/strong> Created by the London Marathon organisers, The Big Half runs a course that borrows the best bits of the marathon \u2014 over Tower Bridge, through Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, past the Cutty Sark \u2014 and finishes in Greenwich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It has the production quality you’d expect from the London Marathon team, and it deliberately puts community participation at its centre rather than treating it as an afterthought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> Running iconic London landmarks on closed roads without needing a marathon ballot place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> Some climbing, and it falls exactly a week before the Great North Run \u2014 if both are on your list, decide now which one you’re actually racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The world’s largest half marathon, and the one everyone should do once.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Founded in 1981 by Olympic medallist Brendan Foster, the Great North Run draws over 57,000 runners from Newcastle upon Tyne to the coast at South Shields. The Tyne Bridge crossing in the first mile \u2014 with the Red Arrows overhead \u2014 is one of the most recognisable images in British sport, and the finish along the seafront at South Shields is genuinely emotional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The course records tell you it’s quick when raced properly: Martin Mathathi’s 58:56 and Brigid Kosgei’s 1:04:28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> The single biggest occasion in UK running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> Entry is by ballot, opening around race weekend the year before and again in January. There’s a real climb from mile one to about mile five out of Gateshead that catches out people expecting a flat coastal run. Charity places are the main fallback if the ballot doesn’t land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best flat-and-fast big-city half in Britain.<\/strong> Cardiff regularly fills a field of 27,000 and is the UK’s second-largest half marathon behind the Great North Run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The course starts near Cardiff Castle and runs a genuinely flat single loop past the Principality Stadium, out to Cardiff Bay, around Roath Park Lake and back to a finish at the Civic Centre. It holds a World Athletics Elite Label and is a member of the SuperHalfs<\/strong> series alongside Lisbon, Berlin, Prague, Copenhagen and Valencia \u2014 so if you’re chasing that six-race set, Cardiff is one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s also Wales’s largest mass-participation and multi-charity fundraising event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> Autumn PBs, SuperHalfs chasers, and Welsh crowd support that punches well above the city’s size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> It sells out within hours. Enter the ballot when it opens or plan a charity place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most beautiful road race in London.<\/strong> The Royal Parks Half runs through Hyde Park, Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens, past Buckingham Palace and the London landmarks in between, in the middle of autumn colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s largely traffic-free, largely flat, and has a strong environmental and charity focus. Of everything on this list, it’s the race most likely to make you stop and look around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best for:<\/strong> Scenery, autumn colour, and a London race that doesn’t feel like an assault course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch out for:<\/strong> Park paths mean some narrow sections, and it’s popular enough that entry needs planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ten is an arbitrary number and the UK has more than ten good halves. Also worth your attention:<\/p>\n\n\n\n UK entry systems fall into three broad types, and knowing which is which saves a lot of disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Great North Run and Cardiff both use ballots. Applications open months ahead \u2014 often around the previous year’s race weekend \u2014 and close well before most people have started thinking about next season. Set a calendar reminder rather than relying on spotting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brighton, Hackney, Liverpool and several others simply fill. There’s no lottery to lose; there’s just a day when entries open and a later day when they’re gone. Sign up for each race’s mailing list \u2014 it’s the only reliable way to catch the opening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every major UK half holds back places for charity partners, typically in exchange for a fundraising commitment. For the biggest races this is often the most realistic route in, and for a lot of runners it’s a better experience anyway. Apply early; the popular charities allocate their places quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The UK calendar splits cleanly into two blocks, which makes planning straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spring (February-May)<\/strong> is the bigger of the two. Brighton (28 Feb), Bath (14 Mar) and Reading (21 Mar) serve well as marathon build-up races or standalone early-season goals. Then May delivers the best conditions of the first half of the year \u2014 but it’s tight: Hackney on the 16th, Manchester on the 23rd, Edinburgh on the 30th. Three excellent races in a fortnight, and no sensible way to race all three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Autumn (September-October)<\/strong> is where the marquee events sit, and it’s even more compressed. The Big Half (5 Sep), Great North Run (12 Sep), Cardiff (4 Oct) and Royal Parks (10 Oct) fall inside five weeks, along with most of the honourable mentions. Pick one goal race and treat anything else as a supporting effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Big Half and the Great North Run sitting a week apart is worth flagging in particular \u2014 plenty of runners do both, but only one of them can be raced properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A realistic structure<\/strong> for most runners: one spring half and one autumn half as genuine A races, roughly four to five months apart, with one or two smaller local races as tune-ups within each block. That’s four to five halves a year \u2014 plenty, and sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attempting all ten on this list would be an expensive and exhausting way to run worse times at every one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \ud83c\udfaf Picked your races?<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n Log them in RunningLog as planned races, set your A\/B\/C priorities, and track every finish alongside your PBs. Free to start, no credit card needed.\n <\/p>\n Start Your Free Race Log \u2192<\/a>\n <\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n If you want a personal best, enter Edinburgh. If you want the biggest day in British running, ballot for the Great North Run. If you want a fast course with a proper crowd, go to Cardiff. If you want the prettiest morning of your year, run the Royal Parks. And if you just want a brilliant time, Hackney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The UK half marathon calendar is deep, well organised and mostly affordable. The only real barrier is entry \u2014 so decide early, get your name down, and build your year around two races that matter rather than six that don’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ready to plan 2027? Build your race calendar in RunningLog<\/a> \u2014 add your planned races, set your goals, and keep your whole season in one place.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Which UK half is on your list for 2027? Share your plans on Instagram<\/a> or Threads<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UK runs over 500 half marathons a year, which is either brilliant or paralysing depending on how you look at it. There’s a race almost every weekend, most of them are well organised, and a good number of them are genuinely excellent. The problem is that the best ones sell out. Cardiff, Brighton, Hackney […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-races"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276,"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runninglog.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. Brighton Half Marathon \u2014 East Sussex (28 February 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2. Bath Half Marathon \u2014 Somerset (14 March 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3. Reading Half Marathon \u2014 Berkshire (21 March 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. Hackney Half \u2014 London (16 May 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
5. Great Manchester Run Half \u2014 Manchester (23 May 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6. Edinburgh Half Marathon \u2014 Scotland (30 May 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
7. The Big Half \u2014 London (5 September 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
8. Great North Run<\/a> \u2014 Newcastle to South Shields (12 September 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
9. Cardiff Half Marathon<\/a> \u2014 Wales (4 October 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
10. Royal Parks Half Marathon \u2014 London (10 October 2027)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Honourable Mentions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How to Actually Get Into These Races<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ballot races<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
First-come races that sell out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Charity places<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Building a UK Half Marathon Season<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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