The New Forest Full Marathon is now classed as a 'Multi-Terrain' race.

UK Athletics certification rules do not permit the New Forest Marathon to be called a 'Road Race' as 3 miles (5 km) of the new course are 'Off Road' though these are on good forest track. The rules state that a maximum of 2.6 km are permitted to be off road and if this is exceeded the race has to be classed as 'Multi-Terrain'. Our new course has been reliably measured by a UK Athletics / RRC accredited measurer and is an accurate 26.2 / 13.1 miles. The Half Marathon is 100% on road and still a road race.

When the New Forest Marathon and Half Marathon were first conceived in 1981 few motorists used the race route on a Sunday morning. Society has changed since then and now everyone is busy visiting supermarkets, garden centres and DIY stores, main forest roads are now full of traffic from 09:00 am. Motorists seem to have little time spare to give way for runners using the same roads.

Leading up to our 2007 races there were many problems with road traffic, it was obvious that for the events to survive we had to find a quieter route. We have been very busy redesigning both courses during the past winter months and have incorporated many improvements. The Marathon now includes two sections of good forest track totalling three miles. This is a compacted gravel surface as used in all previous years (used to be one and a half miles). The Half Marathon is all on tarmac but over much quieter roads.

Start and finish locations remain unchanged.

Both races use the same roads but with the Marathon you get twice as much scenery!

The new route has been officially measured for accuracy of distance.

A new map is available for download now. Full and comprehensive details of both courses will be posted on this website soon.

Shown below - start of the first off-road section of the Marathon course. This is a dismantled railway track last used in the 1960's and very flat - more images on the 'Course Profile' page.

As of February 2005 the New Forest Full & Half Marathons have been awarded Gold standard by the British Association of Road Races. The road race grading scheme is designed and administered for UK Athletics by BARR. Gold is the best of three grades and demands the very highest standards of race organisation and provision.

Find out more

www.barr-online.org.uk