Royal Parks Half Marathon 2026
13.1 miles through four Royal Parks in peak autumn colour, past Buckingham Palace, Horse Guards and the Serpentine. London at its absolute best.
6 weeks to race day: the sharpening window
A full build no longer fits, but a sharp one does. This close in, the job is specificity and freshness: race-pace touches, open-water or brick rehearsal, and a taper your nervous system actually absorbs. No heroics; arrive fresh.
Building for this one? Training plans cover the sessions, the weekly shape and how the block is paced. The R.A.C.E. Framework explains why it is built that way.
Adapt my training to this course.
Commit to the date and we will walk you to it: a countdown, honest guidance by email, and the debrief afterwards. Full adaptive training for running races is coming; nothing here pretends otherwise.
One confirmation email, then the road begins. Registering for the race itself stays with the organiser.
“The prettiest 13.1 in Britain. Ballot opens in spring; set a reminder, it is always oversubscribed.”
The race
The course
No course maps for this race. The organiser publishes no downloadable route for any leg of this race, so there is nothing to draw a course map from. Everything below comes from the official course page, checked on the date at the foot of this section.
The route was rebuilt for 2025 and the finish moved: you now finish in front of the Albert Memorial and the Royal Albert Hall rather than merely passing them near the end. Kensington Palace joins Buckingham Palace on the course, so it takes in two royal palaces. The middle runs through central London streets before returning to the parks, and Serpentine Road is the loudest stretch of the day. Event village stays in Hyde Park.
Not yet confirmed for this edition: lap count, elevation gain, cut-off times, start time. We publish these only once they are on the official course page, so check there before you pace off anything here.
Course details verified against the official Royal Parks Half Marathon course page on 14 August 2026. Courses change; the official page is always the last word.
Questions, answered
When is Royal Parks Half Marathon 2026?
What distances can I race at Royal Parks Half Marathon?
How hard is the course?
How long do I need to train for it?
How do I enter?
Read before you race
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Photograph of Central London: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Not official race photography.
This listing is for information only. Unbroken is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Royal Parks Half Marathon or its organiser. Details are based on publicly available information; names are used descriptively to identify the event. For accurate, up-to-date information and entry, always use the official event website.