Yorkshire Marathon 2026: route, closures and cheering

The Altra Yorkshire Marathon Festival took place yesterday, Sunday 18 October, and if you spent the day wondering why half the city was closed off, here is what actually happened. More than 10,000 runners took part across the day's events, all starting and finishing at the University of York on University Road. The marathon and the Yorkshire Marathon Relay both got underway at 09:30, with the Altra Yorkshire 10 Mile following at 10:15, and the last runner not crossing the line until around 17:30.

The route itself is a proper tour of the area. It left University Road and headed west via Hull Road, Lawrence Street and St Deny's Road into the city centre, where miles one and two took runners past Piccadilly, High Ousegate, Coney Street and Deangate, right across York Minster. From there it looped through Heworth and Stockton Lane, out to Sandy Lane and Northgate Lane, then north to Sand Hutton and south again via Buttercrambe Moor Wood to Stamford Bridge. The runners then turned west along the A166 Stamford Bridge Road to Dunnington, a section they actually crossed twice, before a loop north of the A166 took them through Holtby and Murton and back down Murton Way, Osbaldwick Lane and Hull Road to the finish.

For anyone who lives or works in the middle of it all, the closures were the real story. The A166 and a handful of village roads shut at 06:00, and by 08:00 a huge chunk of the city centre was closed off, from Hull Road and Coney Street right through to Monkgate and Walmgate. A1036 Heworth Green and Sandy Lane went at 08:30, and by 09:30, roads as far out as Holtby Lane and Murton Way were shut. University Road had been closed since 10:00 on the Saturday, only reopening late on the Sunday evening.

If you were cheering, there were a few obvious places to stand. Mile two in the city centre, passing York Minster, was the most scenic; mile thirteen at Stamford Bridge marked the halfway point; and miles seventeen and nineteen at Dunnington were the ones where you could see the runners twice. The finish line and the Event Village at Campus South, with its big screen, was where everyone ended up.

Getting in and out was the planned part of the day. York Pullman ran Park & Ride services from Elvington Airfield, Askham Bar and Grimston Bar, and a city-centre shuttle ran from York Railway Station, stand J, straight to the Event Village from 07:00, with runners given priority before 08:30. A separate spectator shuttle linked the Park & Ride sites to Dunnington and Stamford Bridge, and parking at the University of York was reserved for Blue Badge holders only. Travel times from the Event Village were roughly ten minutes from Grimston Bar, fifteen from Dunnington, twenty from the city centre and twenty from Elvington Airfield, with Stamford Bridge sitting at thirty.

Beyond the running, there was a charitable thread running through the whole thing, with participants fundraising for research into childhood cancers, better treatments and support for families affected by a child's cancer diagnosis. It is a large-scale event rather than a small club race, and the crowd support and festival atmosphere along the route are a big part of what makes it what it is.