Kingston Half Marathon 22 Nov: 9am Hawker Centre, From £38

If you searched for the Kingston Half Marathon and came away confused, this is why: there are two of them, seven weeks apart, run by different companies from different start lines. The first, River Thames Running’s race from the Market Place, was on Sunday 4 October and has passed. The next one is RunUK’s, on Sunday 22 November at 9am from the Hawker Centre, and it still has places.

Updated 8 October: the 4 October race has passed, so this page now leads with the 22 November race. RunUK’s booking system showed 894 half marathon places and 896 10K places left on 8 October; prices are unchanged.

Both use the Thames towpath. Neither is a closed-road event.

The November race: Sunday 22 November, Hawker Centre

RunUK starts and finishes on the fields at the Hawker Centre, Lower Ham Road, KT2 5BH, and runs through the town centre streets and along the towpath. The half and the 10K both start at 9am.

Prices come from the organiser’s own booking system, rechecked on 8 October:

Every finisher gets a medal, and there is chip timing, a free baggage drop, toilets at the start, a medical team and a warm-up ten minutes before the gun. Headphones are banned unless they are bone conducting, under UKA Rule 240 S 5. The official charity partner is Kingston Hospital Charity.

Do not drive into the Hawker Centre. The organiser could not be blunter about this: “we have lost use of the Hawker Centre Car Park, there will be NO CAR PARKING within the Centre as in previous years”, and there will be a marshal on the gate turning runners away. It suggests the surrounding residential roads, naming Dukes Avenue and Riverside Drive, and asks runners not to block driveways. The main building is open from 8am, on the condition that runners behave; the club lost the use of it one year after member complaints.

By train, the nearest station is Kingston, then either the 65 bus towards Ealing or a twenty minute walk.

The October race: Sunday 4 October, Market Place (now past)

This race was on Sunday 4 October and has now passed. The detail below is how it was run this year, kept for anyone planning for 2027.

River Thames Running starts and finishes in the Ancient Market Place and takes the flat riverside route out past Hampton Court Palace. The organiser describes the course as “flat as a pancake”, a mix of road, path and gravel, measured by Olympic Games measurer Hugh Jones and run under Run England rules.

The practical detail, from the organiser’s race page and its final instructions (PDF uploaded in October):

• Places: the race page said “ONLY 20 ENTRIES LEFT” on 1 October, and standard entry closed at 11.59pm that night. There are no entries on the day.
• Entry: £40 plus a £2.50 transaction fee for club runners, £42 plus £2.50 for everyone else.
• Race village in Kingston Market Place, with registration tents opposite Next. Race morning number collection runs 7am to 8.10am and the instructions say late arrivals “will not be given a race number”. Bag drop is at the white tents in front of the Market Hall, also 7am to 8.10am, one rucksack-sized bag each.
• Start 8.30am in waves: sub 1:45, sub 2:00, sub 2:20 and over 2:20, with pacers. Be in your wave 15 minutes before the start.
• Minimum age 17 on race day.
• Cut-off 3 hours 30 minutes. Anyone beyond that “will be unsupported”.
• Water at 4, 6.7 and 9 miles and at the finish, per the final instructions. (The race web page still says 4.7, 8.6 and 11 miles; the instructions are the newer document.)
• Toilets: portable loos in Bath Passage by the race village, plus Canbury Gardens at 4 and 12.5 miles and Hampton Court station at 9 miles.
• No in-ear headphones under UK Athletics rules. Bone conduction is allowed.
• No prams, pushchairs, wheelchairs, dogs or bikes on the course.
• Numbers collected in advance: About The Run, Unit A, 7 Crown Arcade, KT1 1JB, until 5.30pm on Saturday 3 October, or Sporting Feet, 9 King Street, Richmond, TW9 1ND, until 3pm on Saturday 3 October. After that it is race morning only.
• No refunds after 14 days, no deferrals, no transfers.
• Prizes are shop vouchers, £100, £75 and £50 for first, second and third of each sex, plus free entry to another River Thames Running event.

The Kingston 10K is not happening this year. The organiser’s page says the “‘Russell-Cooke’ Kingston 10k will not be returning in 2026 whilst we work on improving the course”, and points 10K runners at a Kew Gardens race on 3 April 2027 instead. If a listing site sold you a Kingston 10K place for October, check it.

Driving in: runners can pre-pay for discounted parking at Q-Park Eden Walk, Union Street, KT1 1BL, with the organiser’s code KREWOCT26. The car park opens early on race day (the travel page says 6am in one line and 5am in another). The instructions warn that “roadworks are closing one lane and queues are expected at the car park”, so allow extra time. The organiser’s other suggestions are Ashdown Road (KT1 2NH), the NCP on Wheatfield Way (KT1 2PR) and Thames Side (KT1 1PL).

By train on Sunday 4 October: Kingston is about a seven minute walk from the start. South Western Railway has the Staines area closed that weekend, so Waterloo to Kingston via Hounslow trains terminate at Hounslow, and Shepperton trains run only as far as Twickenham, with buses between Teddington and Shepperton. Trains from Waterloo via Wimbledon still reach Kingston.

Roads, parking and what it means if you are not running

Neither race is a closed-road event, and there is no council road closure order for either. River Thames Running’s FAQ says “roads will be open and marshalled by traffic management company and volunteers”. Its final instructions add that the route “runs on a mixture of closed roads and public paths” and that “the sections that are closed road will be clearly marked”, so expect short marshalled closures and cones around the Market Place and the riverside on Sunday morning rather than signed diversions.

If you are parking in town on race morning, our parking guide has the tariffs for all ten council car parks, including the five that charge round the clock every day of the year. The Guildhall car park is Saturdays only, so it is no use on a Sunday. For anything else affecting the route that weekend, see our roadworks and travel page.

Sources

• River Thames Running, Kingston Half Marathon, final instructions, travel and parking, common questions and Kingston 10K
• South Western Railway, September and October engineering work
• RunUK, Kingston Half Marathon and Kingston 10K, with entry prices from the event’s own booking system

First checked on 5 September 2026; rechecked on 1 and 8 October 2026.