The best Half Marathons near me

Complete a half marathon and you can really call yourself a runner. Requiring high levels of fitness and resilience, they are a serious undertaking not recommended for the first-time athlete. A half marathon is 13 miles long – a little over 21km – so you’re getting up into the realms of a real tough workout.

Usually held on road, a common goal among those with some experience is to finish within 2 hours, equating to around 6 minutes per km – a time considered very respectable among half marathon runners. Highly competitive athletes aim for around 90 minutes, which converts to a pace of 4.5 min/km.

A good test of whether you’re ready for a half marathon is to try to hit 6 min/km during your 10k races. Experienced runners know that it’s not the pace itself but sustaining it for the second hour that is the real challenge in a half marathon, so assess how you are feeling towards the end of your 10k races and be honest with yourself – could you do it all over again for another 11km?

With the right nutrition and fluids a half marathon is within the reach of most people, but you should always be on top of your fuelling and there’s nowhere better to find out all you need to help you plan than the previous experience of Racecheck athletes. Check out their comments about the event food and drink stations from our athlete reviews, and take a look at our Race Organisation Rating where those who have entered previously score the quality of the aid stations.

Half marathons are often held alongside full-distance marathons – particularly at some of the more iconic running locations. You can easily discover the best half marathons with Racecheck’s incredibly smart search function, with filters for specific distance, as well as time of year and location.