Paddock Wood Athletic Club
The Paddock Wood Half Marathon
Race Info
Difficulty
Open Podium Race Stats
Prizes
No prize on offer for this race yet.
Results
Reflections
Race Tips
The official car parking is a long walk from the start/finish area. I'd recommend using the train station, which is closer and has always had spaces when I've run — there's a small fee, but it's worth it, especially post-race, when your legs are no longer doing what your brain tells them.
Race details
| Location | Eldon Way, Paddock Wood, Kent |
|---|---|
| Postcode | TN12 6BE |
| Elevation | 78m |
| Date | TBC |
| Start Time | 09:00 |
Race Description
First run in 1989 and missed only once since, when foot-and-mouth restrictions forced a cancellation in 2001, the Paddock Wood Half Marathon has grown from a field of under 700 into one of the South East's biggest half marathons, with well over two thousand finishers most years. It starts from Eldon Way and heads out onto quiet Kent lanes through the county's hop gardens and orchards - genuinely pretty, gently rolling countryside rather than anything urban - on a course that's earned a reputation among club runners as fast, flat and accurately measured, making it a go-to date for anyone chasing a half marathon PB in March. That reputation is part of why it fills up early each year, alongside a long-standing partnership with the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance, which the race has supported as its principal charity and helped fund with substantial sums raised by runners and organisers alike over the decades.
Long-term sponsorship from a local backer has helped keep organisation stable through more than three decades of running, which shows in the smoothness of race-day logistics even as fields have grown considerably. It suits serious road runners looking for a genuinely fast, well-marshalled course as much as first-timers wanting a scenic, manageable introduction to the distance - the hop country scenery softens what is, underneath it, a proper competitive half marathon with a long club tradition and a charitable cause that gives every finish extra purpose.