Reading Half Marathon

Reading Half Marathon
Finish of the half marathon in 2010 at the Madejski Stadium
Date	March/April
Location	Reading, United Kingdom
Event type	Road
Distance	Half marathon
Established	1983
Official site	www.readinghalfmarathon.com

The Reading Half Marathon is a half marathon road running event held on the streets of the English town of Reading. The race is normally held on a Sunday in March or early April of each year. It was first run on 13 March 1983, and has been run every year since, with the exception for 2001. The race is open to everyone from fun runner to elite athlete, and was one of the first town races to include wheelchair athletes.

The 2017 race was held on 19 March, and more than ten thousand runners started. The 2018 race will be held on 18 March.

The Reading Half Marathon has had several courses over its life. The inaugural race in 1983, and several subsequent races, used University of Reading's Whiteknights Campus for both the start and finish. Other early courses involved use of the Rivermead Sports Centre, on the banks of the River Thames, as start and/or finish, but recent races have used Green Park Business Park and the adjacent Madejski Stadium, both to the south of Reading, for these purposes.

The 1984 course appears to have been short of the full half marathon distance. In 1992 the course was shortened by approximately 700 metres due to a bomb-scare.

The current course starts in Green Park Business Park, which it loops before proceeding eastwards through Whitley Wood to the Whiteknights Campus, which lies between the 4-mile (6.4 km) and 5-mile (8.0 km) markers. The route then heads north, passing close to the ruins of Reading Abbey, before traversing the town centre between the 6-mile (9.7 km) and 8-mile (13 km) markers. Leaving the town centre by Oxford Road and a steep climb up Russell Street, the course then loops around West Reading until the 11-mile (18 km) marker. The course then heads back south to the Madejski Stadium, where it finishes within the stadium.

The current male course record is 61 minutes 19 seconds, by Patrick Makau in 2008. The female record is 69 mins 35 seconds, set by Liz Yelling in 2008. The male wheelchair record is 45 minutes 59 seconds, set by David Weir in 2006, while the female wheelchair record is 65 minutes 17 seconds, set by Mel Nicholls in 2015.