London holds four big closed-road half marathons, two mass 10Ks and a one-mile race that finishes outside Buckingham Palace, and for every one of them you need a place months in advance. The only running event you can simply turn up to is parkrun, which is free, weekly and takes no entry at all.
Visitors often assume London's running calendar begins and ends with the Marathon. Between February and October there are six other mass events on closed central London roads, several with more than 20,000 runners, and each hands out places differently: a free ballot, a paid ballot, a charity place, or a timed online scramble that sells out in under an hour.
This page is about how you get in, when the date is set and where each year's date is published. Our guide to watching the London Marathon covers the big one, and our guide to running routes in London covers running for its own sake, including how parkrun registration works.
London's mass running events at a glance
- Next confirmed dates
- Winter Run 10K Sunday 21 February 2027; London Landmarks Half Sunday 4 April 2027; Hackney Half Sunday 16 May 2027; Big Half Sunday 5 September 2027; Westminster Mile Saturday 25 September 2027; London 10,000 Sunday 26 September 2027
- Needs no entry
- parkrun: free, 9am every Saturday, more than 80 events inside Greater London
- Usual way in for a visitor
- A charity place. Ballots close six to ten months ahead and most are UK-focused in their marketing
- Where dates appear
- Each organiser's own event page, usually within days of the previous edition finishing
- Typical entry fee
- £49.99 to £79.99 for a ballot place in 2026-27 prices; a charity place adds a fundraising commitment
How each event hands out its places
The pattern matters more than the date, because the date moves every year and the mechanism almost never does. Read the right-hand column before you book flights around a race.
| Event | Distance | Next date | How you get a place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cancer Research UK London Winter Run | 10K | Sun 21 Feb 2027 | Open entry, first come first served. 2027 places went on public sale on Monday 21 September 2026 |
| London Landmarks Half Marathon | Half | Sun 4 Apr 2027 | Free ballot in June, then charity places only |
| TCS London Marathon | Marathon | Sat 24 and Sun 25 Apr 2027 | Ballot drawn in July 2026; charity places and tour operators after that |
| HOKA Hackney Half | Half | Sun 16 May 2027 | Pre-register for an access link, then three timed entry windows. Now charity places only |
| Big Half | Half, relay, mile | Sun 5 Sep 2027 | Open entry plus a limited number of charity places |
| Vitality Westminster Mile | 1 mile | Sat 25 Sep 2027 | Open entry; free for under-11s |
| Vitality London 10,000 | 10K | Sun 26 Sep 2027 | Open entry |
| Oysho Royal Parks Half Marathon | Half | October, date to follow | Public ballot opening in late January, then charity places |
The London Landmarks Half Marathon, and the ballot that lasts a week
This is the only half marathon that runs through both Westminster and the City of London, and the 2027 edition is on Sunday 4 April 2027. It is owned and organised by Tommy's, the pregnancy and baby charity, which is unusual: the profits go to the organiser.
The ballot is the part visitors get wrong. It opened on Tuesday 16 June 2026, stayed open for exactly one week and closed at 12 noon on Tuesday 23 June. Results of the main draw went out on Tuesday 30 June 2026. Entering the ballot itself costs nothing, but you can choose to pay your entry fee upfront as a donation, and that choice changes two things: the fee drops from £74.99 to £49.99 if you are successful, and you are entered into a Second Chance Ballot if you are not.
Entries are limited to one per person and one per email address, and a place is lost if you miss the registration deadline after being drawn. With the ballot closed, the only route in is an official charity partner; runners outside the UK are pointed at an international fundraising partner or a UK charity.
The course is the selling point, and the organiser's own description of it is fair: this is the only half marathon that runs through both Westminster and the City of London. Each year's route is published separately, so if you are picking a spot to watch from, use the map for the year you are attending rather than an older one.
The Hackney Half, where the entry window is the event
The Hackney Half is now part of a three-day festival based at Hackney Marshes, held from Friday 14 to Sunday 16 May 2027. The half marathon itself, 21.1km on closed roads through the borough, is on Sunday 16 May. A 10K night run goes off on the Friday evening, and a 5K on the Saturday.
Its entry system is the strictest in London. To buy a place you must either have run the previous edition or pre-register for an access link, and entries then open in three separate timed windows rather than all at once. For the 2027 race those windows were Monday 18 May 2026 at 1pm, Tuesday 19 May at 10am and Tuesday 19 May at 7pm. The organiser says places sold out in under an hour the year before, which is why the windows exist. General entries have now gone and charity places are the only way in.
One organiser page gives the Hackney Half as a Sunday on 17 May 2027. That date is a Monday. The dated event cards on the same site say Sunday 16 May 2027, which matches the calendar, and that is the date to work from. Race sites routinely carry last year's day of the week beside this year's date, so check any running date against a calendar before you book a flight.
If you are not running, the borough is worth a morning anyway: see our guide to Hackney and London Fields.
The Big Half: Tower Bridge to the Cutty Sark
First held in 2018 and run by London Marathon Events, the Big Half starts at Tower Bridge and finishes beside the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, crossing four boroughs on the way: Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich. The 2027 race is on Sunday 5 September with a 9am start.
It is the easiest of the four halves for a visitor to enter, because places are sold openly rather than balloted, with a limited number of charity places alongside them. A relay and a one-mile event run on the same day, which makes it the most family-friendly of the big halves. Our guide to staying near the O2 and Greenwich Peninsula covers the nearest cluster of rooms to the finish.
The Royal Parks Half, and the ballot that opens in January
London's original half marathon, created in 2008 by The Royal Parks charity, now runs under the name Oysho Royal Parks Half Marathon. The 2026 race was on Sunday 11 October. It is a single 13.1-mile lap on closed roads through four of the eight Royal Parks, starting on South Carriage Drive in Hyde Park, passing through Green Park and St James's Park, and finishing in Kensington Gardens. The organiser says the event has raised more than £80 million for over 1,900 charities.
The public ballot for the 2026 race opened on Monday 26 January 2026 and closed at 17:00 on Friday 6 February. If you want the 2027 race, the organiser's own advice is to register interest now and wait to be contacted early in the year, because the ballot window is short and is not advertised outside its own mailing list.
The practical details that decide whether it suits you: minimum age 17 on race day; first wave about 08:45 and the last between 09:30 and 09:45; event village open from 07:30; and a cut-off four hours after the last wave starts, about 18 minutes 19 seconds per mile. Runners living outside the UK are not sent a race pack and must collect it, on the Friday in Southwark or on the Saturday at the event village. A room on the north or west side of the park removes a 25-minute journey at half past seven in the morning: see staying in Notting Hill and Bayswater.
The two mass 10Ks, in February and September
The Cancer Research UK London Winter Run calls itself the UK's largest 10K, and the organiser says more than 26,000 people took part in 2026. It is held in central London on a Sunday in February; the next is Sunday 21 February 2027. Entry is open and sold directly, with 2027 places released publicly on Monday 21 September 2026, so it is the one event here you can still get into on a whim.
The Vitality London 10,000 sits at the end of September: Sunday 27 September 2026, and Sunday 26 September 2027. It began in 2008 with just over 6,000 finishers, the course is flat with a few gentle rises, and the cut-off is a generous two hours, which makes it a sensible first 10K for anyone stepping up from parkrun.
The London 10,000 is no longer a May bank holiday race. Guides written before 2026 place it on the early May bank holiday Monday. It now sits on the last Sunday of September, on the day after the Westminster Mile, and the two events close the roads around St James's Park across the same weekend.
The mile that finishes outside Buckingham Palace
The Vitality Westminster Mile was launched in 2013 as a legacy event from the 2012 Olympic Games, and it is the only mile race in Britain that finishes outside Buckingham Palace. It is held on the Saturday, the day before the London 10,000: Saturday 26 September 2026, and Saturday 25 September 2027. Entry is open, children under 11 run free, and the distance means an entire family can take part without training. If you are travelling with children, this is the one event on the page worth planning a trip around; our guide to London with children has the rest of the practical detail.
parkrun: the one you can turn up to
Everything above needs a place bought or won months ahead. parkrun does not. It is free, it runs at 9am every Saturday in more than 80 London parks, and you may walk it. You do need to register once, anywhere in the world, and bring your barcode. The joining steps, the junior events and a list of which parkrun to use from each part of London are in the running routes guide linked at the top of this page, and the original event, still the biggest, is in Bushy Park.
What closes, and how to plan a Sunday around a race
All the events above run on closed roads, so for half a Sunday a band of central London cannot be crossed by bus or taxi. Three consequences are worth planning for.
- Bus routes are diverted, not merely delayed. The Underground is the reliable way across town on a race morning; our guide to quiet times on London transport explains when the trains are busiest.
- Engineering works can land on the same weekend. For the October 2026 Royal Parks Half the organiser had to warn runners about planned closures on the Circle and District lines, which are the lines that serve the start.
- Parks stay open, paths may not. Walkers can use the Royal Parks on race day, but cycle routes and some footpaths are suspended.
Rooms near a start or finish go early for race weekends, and April is the hardest month because of the Marathon. Our guide to when to book a London hotel lists the 2027 dates that fill the city.
If you would rather watch
All these events are free to watch and none needs a ticket. The Big Half gives the best single vantage point, because Tower Bridge and the Cutty Sark are worth standing next to anyway. The Westminster Mile packs a whole race into a few minutes, which suits small children. For the Marathon, where to stand is a subject of its own, covered on the Marathon page linked above.
Other mass events fill the same calendar: the free cultural festivals on Trafalgar Square, and on the cycling side the rides in our guide to RideLondon and cycling events.
Frequently asked questions
Can a visitor from abroad enter a London half marathon?
Yes, all of them accept overseas runners, but the practical route in is usually a charity place, because the ballots open and close within a week or two and are advertised mainly to UK mailing lists. Note also that race packs are generally not posted outside the UK, so build a collection trip into your plans: the Royal Parks Half, for example, requires collection in Southwark on the Friday or at the event village on the Saturday.
Which London running event is easiest to get into?
The Cancer Research UK London Winter Run 10K in February, which sells places openly and had 26,000 of them in 2026, and the Big Half in September, which also sells places directly rather than balloting them. The Hackney Half is the hardest: general entries sold out in under an hour, and only pre-registered runners are given the purchase link.
When is the London Landmarks Half Marathon 2027?
Sunday 4 April 2027. The ballot for that race ran for one week in June 2026 and has closed, so the remaining route in is a place with one of the official charity partners. Entering the ballot is free, while a successful ballot place cost £74.99, or £49.99 for runners who donated the fee upfront.
Do I need a ticket to watch a London road race?
No. Every event on this page is free to watch from the pavement, and no event uses ticketed grandstands for general spectators. What you do need is a plan for crossing the route, because the roads are closed for several hours and bus routes are diverted rather than merely delayed.
Is there a parkrun in central London?
Yes, several within a short journey of the centre, including Southwark Park, Burgess Park, Mile End Park, Hampstead Heath, Battersea Park and Finsbury Park. They all start at 9am on Saturdays, cost nothing, and need only a one-off registration and your printed or on-screen barcode.
Sources
- Tommy's London Landmarks Half Marathon - FAQs, ballot dates and entry fees (checked September 2026)
- Oysho Royal Parks Half Marathon - About the event (checked September 2026)
- Oysho Royal Parks Half Marathon - Frequently asked questions (checked September 2026)
- Cancer Research UK London Winter Run - event date and 2027 entries (checked September 2026)
- London Marathon Events - Big Half (checked September 2026)
- London Marathon Events - Vitality London 10,000 (checked September 2026)
- London Marathon Events - Vitality Westminster Mile (checked September 2026)
- HOKA Hackney Moves - event dates and entry windows (checked September 2026)