Cardiff has just come off the back of its biggest sporting weekend, and the Cardiff Half Marathon is the obvious place to start. The 23rd edition took place on Sunday 4 October, and it was a busy one: the second-largest half marathon in the UK, the largest charity fundraiser in Wales, and part of the international SuperHalfs series alongside Lisbon, Prague, Berlin, Copenhagen and Valencia. It holds the World Athletics Elite Road Race Label and hosts the Welsh Half Marathon Championships every year.
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The course is built for a fast time. It's a flat, fully closed 13.1-mile loop with only 81 metres of positive elevation, starting at Castle Street outside Cardiff Castle and passing the Principality Stadium and Cardiff City Stadium before heading out to Penarth and the Penarth Marina. From there it crosses the Cardiff Bay Barrage, passes the Norwegian Church, the Senedd and the Wales Millennium Centre, cuts through the bay centre, loops round Roath Park Lake and finishes back in the city centre at the Civic Centre. The main race started at 10:00am, with the elite wheelchair race at 09:57am, and a four-hour cut-off from when the last runner crossed the start line.
For anyone who wants to follow the next one, the road closures are the part that catches people out. They began at 5am on Wednesday 30 September in the Civic Centre area and ran until 11.59pm on Monday 5 October. On race day, a rolling closure operated from 8.30am to 3.10pm across a long list of roads, from Cowbridge Road East and Wellington Street out to the Bay and back through Roath Park and Cathays Terrace, finally finishing at Museum Avenue. Access to Cardiff Bay was diverted via Celerity Drive, Craiglee Drive, Letton Way, Lloyd George Avenue and Bute Place.
On the course itself, the support was well spread. Toilets, urinals and Peequal urinals for women were at the start, in the Event Village, within the first kilometre and at every drink station, with Brecon Carreg handing out water, HIGH5 supplying energy gels and Powerade at mile nine. There was an Alzheimer's Society Calm Zone available, and bag drop sat at Museum Avenue near the Event Village from 08:30, small rucksacks only. Headphones were discouraged but not banned. Pacers from Waterton Motor Group ran at every start zone with flags for times from 1:30 right down to 3:00.
If you're heading down to cheer, the best spots were Castle Street, away from the centre and towards the River Taff, Corbett Road, which had big screens, music and raffles, and the stepped stands of King Edward VII Avenue overlooking the finish. The junior events ran the day before at Cardiff City Hall, with a Toddler Dash, Future Challengers, a Fun Run and an NSPCC Story Time session. The whole thing was entry by ballot this year, with all races sold out and no same-day registration, and more than 30,000 places sold across the weekend. The race was broadcast live on Run 4 Wales' YouTube channel, with a Welsh summary on S4C and BBC iPlayer the next day, and the post-race treat was a proper Welsh Rarebit. The next SuperHalfs race is the Lisbon Half on 25 October, so there's not long to wait if you're chasing the series.
Published Date
15 October 2026
