The 13.1-mile race started at Coate Water Country Park at 9am today, Sunday 27 September, with competitors heading out on a fully closed-road course.
Organised by running events company RunThrough, the Swindon Half Marathon was brought back in 2025 following a six-year absence. More than 3,000 runners were expected to take part in last year’s event, the first time the race had been staged since 2019.
The current route starts and finishes at Coate Water, taking runners through Wanborough, Badbury and Medbourne. It remains largely flat for the first five miles before becoming more undulating and later descending towards the finish.
Prospect Hospice, which supports people affected by life-limiting illness across Swindon, Marlborough and surrounding areas, is being supported by the event. The Swindon Half Marathon has a long history in the town, but financial pressures have repeatedly threatened its future.
In 2013, the British Heart Foundation took over the event from Swindon Borough Council. The charity later cancelled the 2015 race, citing the high cost of staging it. More than 1,500 people had taken part the previous year.
After subsequently being revived, the event ran into further financial difficulties and was cancelled again in 2016. Organisers were around £25,000 short of the money needed for infrastructure including road closures, safety barriers and toilets, despite crowdfunding, sponsorship and donations.
Swindon runners Graeme Hardie and Leigh Bint took over the race at the end of 2016 and staged events in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The Nationwide Swindon Half became a major event in the town, but the pair announced that the 2019 race would be their last.
They said around 3,500 runners were needed for the event to break even, while road closures and traffic management alone cost around £55,000 to £60,000 each year. Despite those financial pressures, runners taking part in the 2018 event raised more than £118,000 for charity.
The 2019 race went ahead, but Swindon would then be left without its major half marathon for six years. The event did not return in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Plans were made for a race in 2021, but it was cancelled just 11 days before it was due to take place.
The Race Organiser, which was behind the planned event, said the pandemic had driven up costs while entries had fallen significantly compared with pre-pandemic levels. A return was proposed for 2022 but did not happen. In January 2024, it emerged that Swindon Borough Council was in talks with a sports events company about reviving the Half Marathon.
RunThrough was confirmed as the new organiser in November that year, with the comeback scheduled for September 2025. Working alongside the council and other local organisations, the company developed a new route intended to reduce disruption while retaining a fully closed-road race.
RunThrough co-founder Matt Wood said the company was proud to bring the event back and wanted it to become a fixture in Swindon’s running calendar. The race successfully returned in September 2025 and today’s event marks its second consecutive year back on the town’s sporting calendar.
