The Bath Half Marathon is a fast flat course, straddling both sides of the river Avon so avoids all the hills surrounding the City. It is a two-lap course and is entirely traffic-free as there are full road closures throughout.
The first mile is gently downhill down Pulteney Road to Churchill Bridge – so resist all temptations to go off too fast.
You then follow two identical laps from Churchill Bridge, gently rising up past Green Park Station, a gentle ‘pull’ round Queen Square (the most crowded spot for spectators on the course), then down Charlotte Street and out along the Upper Bristol Road, gently undulating along Newbridge Road and a longer ‘pull’ up to the ‘New Bridge’ at the beginning of the dual carriageway.
From the ‘Twerton Fork’ the race heads back towards the City centre, pancake-flat along Lower Bristol Road, before crossing over Churchill Bridge and up to Green Park again for the beginning of the second lap. At the end of the second lap the runners pass across Churchill Bridge, finally rising gently (but remorselessly) back up Pulteney Road all the way to the finish with a dramatic finish in Great Pulteney Street.
