Run Bournemouth: 10-11 October, Half Starts 11am

Run Bournemouth is on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October 2026, six races across the two days, and the one most people mean is the Bournemouth Half Marathon, which starts at 11am on the Sunday at Hengistbury Head and finishes at Pier Approach.

There is no full marathon. The organiser’s own race list for 2026 has a half, a 10K, a 5K and three children’s races, and nothing longer. The half marathon event information page puts it directly: the course “follows the old Full Marathon route, taking in both Boscombe and Bournemouth Piers”.

The other thing to know now, five weeks out, is that road closures have not been published. The organiser’s transport page says: “Road closure information for the 2026 Run Bournemouth Festival will be available closer to the event,” and its FAQ adds that the closure document appears in entrants’ MyRunning accounts “at the one month prior to the event”, so around 10 September. We will add it here when it lands.

Every race, day, time and price

Straight from runbournemouth.com. Prices are the minimum standard entry showing at the time of writing, and charity entries start from £0.

Entries opened at 12.01pm on Friday 10 October 2025 and the organiser’s answer on closing is “Entries will close as soon as the event reaches capacity”, so there is no published deadline to work back from.

Age limits are strict: 17 or over on event day for the half, 15 or over for the 10K. Under-16s can run the Supernova 5K but must be supervised at the event by a parent or guardian, though that adult does not have to run.

Where each race starts and finishes

• Half marathon. Starts at Hengistbury Head, runs five miles along the cliff tops, drops to the seafront, out along Boscombe Pier, back up to the overcliff at mile 8, down past the Russell-Cotes to Pier Approach, then out along Bournemouth Pier before the finish on Pier Approach. You run the boards of both piers.
• Supernova 5K. Starts on Bournemouth Prom, finishes near the Run Bournemouth Hub in the Lower Gardens. It is run at dusk, every runner is given a head torch, and the organiser says many wear fluorescent fancy dress.
• Junior 2K, Junior 1.5K and Kids’ Kilometre. Start on Bournemouth Prom, finish near the Hub in the Lower Gardens. The Kids’ Kilometre takes in Bournemouth Pier and each child must be accompanied by an adult, who does not need an entry.

There is a strict cut-off of 3 hours 15 minutes for the half, timed from when the back of the race crosses the start line. A sweeper bus picks up anyone outside it, and refusing the bus means being recorded as a DNF and continuing at your own risk.

Getting to the start, which is the hard part

Hengistbury Head is at the far eastern end of the borough and the finish is in the town centre, so the two ends of the half marathon are seven miles apart by road. The organiser runs its own event buses between them and pushes people hard towards using them.

• Buses to the start leave at 08:45 and 09:45 on the Sunday, from Westover Road by the Pavilion car park (BH1 2BN), Cotlands Road car park (BH1 3BG) and Sovereign Centre car park (BH1 4SX).
• The drop-off is at the Belle Vue and Broadway junction, which the organiser says is “around a 20-minute walk to the start line”. Add that to your timing.
• Post-event buses run from Westover Road between noon and 15:40.
• Spectator buses leave Hengistbury Head at 11:20 and 11:40, straight after the half starts, to get supporters to the finish. There is also a multi-journey spectator ticket.
• Tickets start from £5, are non-refundable and non-transferable, and everyone needs their own. Under-fives travel free on a parent’s knee. There is buggy and wheelchair space, one at a time. Only registered guide dogs are allowed.

Parking, and why you should not drive to Hengistbury Head

The organiser is blunt about this: there will be no parking at Hengistbury Head car park, and “very limited parking available at the Solent Beach Car Park which will be available on a first-come-first-served basis”. If someone is dropping you off, do it at Solent Beach.

Parking charges at the car parks the event buses serve are not covered by your bus ticket. Our Bournemouth parking prices page has the central tariffs, including the Pavilion and the town-centre multi-storeys the buses run from. Check roadworks and travel as well, because the town centre bus improvement works have had Exeter Road, Bourne Avenue, Westover Road, Gervis Place, Old Christchurch Road and Glen Fern Road under a temporary traffic order through 2026, and Westover Road is where the event buses pick up.

Bournemouth station is just over a mile from the finish area and about half a mile from Cotlands Road, where you can catch an event bus to the start.

If you are being dropped at the start, the organiser asks runners to arrive at least 50 minutes before their start time for baggage and toilets.

Rules that catch people out

• Headphones are banned under English Athletics regulations. Bone conduction headphones are allowed.
• Entry fees are not refundable and cannot be deferred. There is a transfer process through the MyRunning account, but you find your own replacement runner and settle the money between you, and the organiser, GSI Events Ltd, takes no responsibility for it.
• Baggage trucks are free, sit near the start line, and move your bag to the Reunion Area at the finish.
• Carers and guide runners get a free entry, but they must create their own MyRunning account and email the organiser before the entry cut-off to have it approved.
• Wheelchair and handbike entrants are welcome in the mass field, must be self-propelled, and must be able to stay inside the time limit. Being much faster than the elite field is also a problem, because the roads are only closed for a set window.
• Your event information pack appears in your MyRunning account 10 days before the event, with the start map and the baggage truck times.

What is still to come

• The road closure document, due around 10 September on the organiser’s own timetable. This is the one non-runners need.
• Bus diversions. Morebus normally publishes a page for the event weekend, but it was not live when we checked on 3 September.
• The event information pack, from about 1 October.

Sources

• Run Bournemouth for the six races, their dates and start times, and the 10 and 11 October 2026 weekend.
• Event information pages for the half marathon, Supersonic 10K, Supernova 5K, Junior 2K, Junior 1.5K and Kids’ Kilometre for the entry prices, the start and finish points, the age bands and the “follows the old Full Marathon route” description.
• Run Bournemouth half marathon route map for the Hengistbury Head start, the cliff tops, both piers and the Pier Approach finish.
• Run Bournemouth half marathon transport information for the event bus times and stops, the Belle Vue drop-off and 20-minute walk, the Hengistbury Head and Solent Beach parking position, and the statement that road closure information will come closer to the event.
• Run Bournemouth FAQs for the 3 hours 15 minutes cut-off, the age limits, the headphone rule, the refund and transfer policy, the baggage trucks, the carer entries, the £5 bus tickets, the guide-dog rule, the 12.01pm 10 October 2025 entry opening and the one-month road closure timetable.