There are big changes for the 35th Brighton Half Marathon and Youth Races in March 2025. For the first time, the Youth Races will take place the day before the main event on Saturday 1st March with the Brighton Half Marathon returning to the city on Sunday 2nd March.

The main race also has a new start and finish on Hove Lawns, designed to offer the necessary space and location to accommodate the event's continued growth. Race organisers E3 Sports Events – official partners of the Sussex Beacon who remain the event's main beneficiary – have an ambitious target. Over 10,000 runners are expected to flock to Brighton to enjoy the fast, flat 13.1mile seafront course. Brighton Half Marathon weekend includes a wheelchair race, the 1-mile youth races and a charity relay 13.1-mile race.

The Sussex Beacon provides specialist support and care for people living with HIV. The event is the single biggest annual fundraiser for The Sussex Beacon. Brighton Half Marathon raises over £1 million for many charities across Sussex and the UK each year.

The Youth Races will see hundreds of junior runners aged 7-17 taking on the mile challenge on Hove Lawns. The chip-timed race is open to all abilities and all participants will receive a technical T-shirt and medal, plus prizes for the first three runners in each age category.

Brighton Half Marathon Operations Director Holly Freeman commented: “Moving to a new Saturday start will help showcase the Youth Races in their own right whilst helping us expand the current format to introduce more races and enable more children to take part. Moving from its traditional Sunday start time to a standalone Saturday event makes perfect sense, whilst still being able to give young runners the experience of running on part of the half marathon course with friends and family in attendance to cheer them on. And I’m sure a later lunchtime start will be appreciated!”

Rockinghorse Children’s Charity is once again supporting the Youth Races. The charity works in partnership with local hospitals, respite centres, and specialist services across Sussex such as The Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital and the Trevor Mann Baby Unit. They fund many projects, including toy cars that little patients can drive around hospitals and sea swimming courses for teenagers with long-term health conditions.

The Brighton Half Marathon champions this year were Marshall Smith (Ashford AC, 1:07:17) and Cassie Thorp (City of Portsmouth AC, 1:15:34). There were 8,167 finishers in four hours, so that 10,000 runner target seems to be a good bet!

For more information and to register for this event go to the Brighton Half Marathon here.

Previous race results and event reports are at the runABC South race listing here.

Photo courtesy Brighton Half Marathon Press & Media