The £38 half marathon entry is now waiting list only; marathon places are left for Sunday 11 October, 9am from Central Park. Entries close 10 October.

The Little Havens Chelmsford Marathon and Half Marathon is on Sunday 11 October 2026. Both distances start at 9am in Central Park, CM2 0FQ, which is also the race HQ and the finish.

The standard half marathon entry has filled. The organiser’s booking system now shows it as waiting list only, and it has dropped off the online entry form. Marathon entries are still open, and so is the half marathon if you enter as a Havens Hero at £54. Entries close on Saturday 10 October, the night before.

Updated 30 September: the £38 half marathon entry went to a waiting list after 5 September. The three entries still open showed about 188 places left between them on 30 September, against about 436 across all four on 5 September.

The essentials

Chelmsford Marathon and Half Marathon 2026, from the organiser's own entry system
Detail2026
DateSunday 11 October 2026
Start9am, both distances
Race HQ, start and finishCentral Park, Chelmsford, CM2 0FQ
Half marathon entry£38.00 standard, now waiting list only; £54.00 as a Havens Hero, still open
Marathon entry£53.00, or £69.00 as a Havens Hero
On the day, if places remainHalf £45, marathon £60
Entries closeSaturday 10 October 2026
Cut-offSix hours
CharityLittle Havens Children's Hospice

The Havens Heroes entry is £16 dearer than the standard one and that £16 is a donation to the hospice, which says it covers half an hour of care. It is the same race and the same place on the start line.

Entering on the day is not a plan. It is described as subject to availability, and with the standard half entry already full, there may be nothing to buy on the morning.

Which Chelmsford half marathon is this?

There are two, they are five months apart, and they are run by different people. Confusing them is the most common mistake made about this race.

  • This one, the Chelmsford Marathon and Half Marathon, is in October, starts and finishes in Central Park, and is a Nice Work partner race for Havens Hospices.
  • The CM Half, at cmhalf.com, is in March, runs along Parkway, Essex Yeomanry Way and Chelmer Village Way on fully closed roads, and finishes on the Anglia Ruskin University campus. The 2026 edition was on 1 March and the next is Sunday 7 March 2027, with entries open and the second release under 150 tickets when we checked.

If you have found a page full of detailed road closures and bus diversions for a Chelmsford half marathon, it is almost certainly the March race, not this one.

The course

Both distances are accurately measured road courses and both are described by the organiser as undulating. They run out through the tree-lined avenues of Central Park and into the country lanes, and finish back down an avenue in the park.

  • The half is a 13.1-mile out-and-back, flatter than the full.
  • The marathon is a single-lap course.
  • Both are “often used as a good for age qualifying event”.
  • There are eight water and aid stations around the course.
  • Pacers are available for both distances, subject to availability.
  • There is a six-hour cut-off. The organiser asks anyone who will take longer to email info@nice-work.org.uk before entering rather than turn up.

Route maps and GPX files are published on the organiser’s course page.

Road closures: nothing published yet

No road closure schedule has been published for 11 October, on the organiser’s site, by Essex Highways or in the Essex County Council traffic orders on the Public Notice Portal, when we checked again on 30 September. That is not the same as there being none. This is a road race on live public highway, and races of this type run on rolling closures and short traffic holds rather than a sealed course: traffic is stopped in front of the runners and released behind them.

The practical version, if you live on or near the route:

  • Detailed closure information is normally sent to entrants in the race communications rather than published on the event page.
  • Expect the largest effect in the Central Park, Parkway and Rainsford area around the 9am start, when a couple of thousand runners leave together.
  • Bus services through the centre are the thing most often altered on race mornings.

We will add the published closures here as soon as they exist. Our roadworks and travel page carries the current schemes on the A12 and A414 in the meantime.

Parking and getting there

Central Park is less than half a mile from Chelmsford railway station, and the organiser’s own directions lead with the train for that reason. On a Sunday morning with roads under holds, walking in from the station or from a city-centre car park is the reliable option.

Sunday tariffs and the car parks nearest the park are on our parking in Chelmsford page.

What entrants get, and what it raises

Every finisher gets a bespoke medal, with trophies and prizes for the leading runners, and there is an event village at Central Park. Havens Hospices and the Carli Lansley Foundation are again offering free heart screening for younger runners, with details going out in the race communications.

The 2025 race raised £53,082.82 for Little Havens, according to the organiser.

If your plans change, entries can be deferred up to 10am, 48 hours before the race, for a £5 charge, either to next year’s race or to another race run by the same organiser. Deferrals are at the organiser’s discretion and that window can close early if the race fills.

What we will update, and when

  • Road closures and bus diversions, expected in the fortnight before the race.
  • Whether the marathon and the Havens Heroes entries sell out before 10 October. The standard half already has.
  • Results and the 2027 date afterwards.

Sources