The Halstead Marathon began in 1995, it was the idea of Colin Richer, a club member and local businessman. To maintain the only Marathon in Essex the race became a regular event to the current time.  This was enabled mainly due to the interest of Braintree District Council and Halstead Town Council in supporting an event that attracts athletes from the United Kingdom and abroad to the local area.

In addition, local commerce regularly support the race as do various voluntary organisations who give us invaluable support on race day.  Therefore we have an event for our area supported by people locally.  North Essex is relatively unrecognised as an area of extreme beauty with its abundance of hidden roads in a background of woods and farmlands.

Even more attractive to runners is that, apart from the last mile, the race is entirely through roads with very little traffic.

As a club we believe, over a decade, we have been able to offer a properly organised race from start to finish with every necessary facility to make the race attractive to experienced and new marathon runners alike.  The course has some hills but it is neither a Potteries or a Snowdonia course.  The ladies record has been broken three times @ 3 hrs 9 mins 52 secs but we are still waiting for the first time of 2.38 for men in 1995 to be broken.  There must be someone out there and our 12th anniversary should be a good race for someone to do it.

As in 2004, the Halstead Marathon has been awarded the Essex County Marathon Championship. We have also been awarded to Road Runners Club Marathon Championships.

Halstead Road Runners is a small club in a rural area.  We ask a lot from our members every year to support an all day event.  We hope for a record number of entrants this year to recognise a Marathon tradition in East Anglia that is held together by ourselves and the Black Dog race in Suffolk.  We are a friendly race and all are welcome.

For additional information please contact Richard Corthine on 01787 273623.

We hope to meet old friends and new on Race Day.