Once a year, a few thousand people run past our front doors. The Fleet Half Marathon has been going since 1982, and for Hart Road Runners it is a home fixture: the roads we use for club runs, closed to traffic for one morning, with half the town out on the pavement.
The 2027 race is on Sunday 14 March. If you have entered, or you keep opening the entry page and closing it again, this is the guide we would give a friend.
The essentials
|
Date and start |
Sunday 14 March 2027, 9:30am, Calthorpe Park, Fleet |
|
Entry |
£30 for club (affiliated) runners, £32 unattached |
|
Entries close |
28 February 2027 |
|
Cut-off |
3 hours, which is about 13:44 per mile |
|
Pacers |
1:30 through to 2:20 |
|
Water |
Every 5km |
|
Charity |
MND Association, North Hampshire Group |
The race is expertly organised entirely by volunteers from our neighbours at Fleet & Crookham AC. Enter on the official Fleet Half Marathon site.
What the course is really like
The official description is gently undulating but fast, and that is fair. People do run personal bests here. But the course has a profile and knowing how to pace it may help give you a minute or two on your finish time (maybe!).
It comes in two parts. First, a loop of roughly three miles around the town. Then a much bigger loop out into the lanes, over the M3 and back to the finish in Calthorpe Park. The 2027 route is the same as 2026.
Three things the locals know:
- The first three miles are a trap! You are fresh, the crowds are loud and the town loop lulls you into feeling good! Almost everyone runs it 15 seconds a mile too fast and pays for it at mile ten. Run the town loop feeling slightly held back.
- The race is decided in the quiet miles. Once you leave town the spectators thin out and it is you, the hedgerows and your pacing. None of the rises are too big, but they arrive when you are tired, and a motorway bridge is a climb whichever way you cross it.
- March has weather. The lanes are open and a headwind is common, so tuck in behind a group rather than fighting it alone. In 2018 the race was snowed off completely and run in late April instead. Pack gloves and a bin bag for the start, whatever the forecast says.
A 12-week plan that starts on 21 December
Count back twelve weeks from race day and you land on Monday 21 December. Yes, Christmas week. That is less cruel than it sounds: the first fortnight is deliberately gentle, and a six-mile run before the Boxing Day leftovers is one of the better deals in running.
The plan assumes you can run five miles comfortably by the time it starts. If you are not there yet, use the weeks before Christmas to build up to it. It is three runs a week: one easy, one with some effort in it, and one long.
|
Week beginning |
Easy run |
Session |
Long run |
|---|---|---|---|
|
21 Dec |
3 miles |
3 miles easy, then 4 × 20 seconds brisk |
6 miles |
|
28 Dec |
4 miles |
6 × 1 minute uphill, jog back down |
7 miles |
|
4 Jan |
4 miles |
15 minutes at comfortably hard effort |
8 miles |
|
11 Jan |
3 miles |
parkrun, relaxed |
6 miles (easier week) |
|
18 Jan |
4 miles |
5 × 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes jog |
9 miles |
|
25 Jan |
5 miles |
20 minutes at comfortably hard effort |
10 miles |
|
1 Feb |
4 miles |
parkrun, as fast as feels sensible |
8 miles (easier week) |
|
8 Feb |
5 miles |
4 × 5 minutes at 10k effort, 2 minutes jog |
11 miles |
|
15 Feb |
5 miles |
2 × 15 minutes at target race pace |
12 miles |
|
22 Feb |
4 miles |
6 × 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes jog |
10 miles |
|
1 Mar |
4 miles |
3 × 1 mile at target race pace |
8 miles |
|
8 Mar |
3 miles |
2 miles easy, then 4 × 20 seconds brisk |
Race day, Sunday 14 March |
A few rules that matter more than any single session:
- Easy means easy. If you cannot hold a conversation, slow down. Most of the benefit comes from the long run, and you want to arrive at it fresh.
- The easier weeks are part of the plan. They are where your legs absorb the work. Skipping them is how people end up injured in February.
- Miss a week, lose a week. Do not try to cram it back in. Pick the plan up where the calendar says you are.
- Practise race morning. Use the 11 and 12 mile runs to test your breakfast, your shoes and whatever you plan to eat or drink on the way round.
Where to do your long runs
The course is only traffic-free on race day. For the rest of the year, parts of it are country lanes with no pavement, so we would not send you round the whole thing on a dark January morning.
The Basingstoke Canal towpath is the answer for flat, traffic-free miles, and you can stitch it together with a loop of Fleet Pond or the town roads to make any distance in the plan. Check out our Running Route database for more inspiration.
Do your long runs with us
Twelve miles is a long way on your own in February. It’s a good deal shorter with a bunch of other likeminded chatty runners.
In the build-up to the race, our members run long together most weekends, in groups by pace, and several of those runs cover sections of the course. You do not need to be a member to come and try us out. Check out our membership pages for more details, or click the chat button bottom right to enquire.
There is a small practical bonus too. Club members get the affiliated entry price, £2 less for this race and for most others you will enter this year.
We will also be out on the course on the day, running it and cheering it. If you see a Hart Road Runners vest, say hello!
