Supporter guide
Welcome to the supporter guide for this year’s Oysho Royal Parks Half Marathon. Whether you’re an experienced race-day supporter or cheering from the sidelines for the first time, you’ll find everything you need to plan your day, find the best places to support your runner and make the most of race day.
Race day
The race starts from 08:45, with runners setting off in waves. The final wave will begin at 9:44.
Your runner has been sent their arrival time to our event village and an estimated start time. You can view the different starting waves here. You'll have to ask them what wave they are in to find out when they're due to start.
Tracking your runner
Our race day app will allow you to track your runner, navigate the route and find other useful race-day information.
The app is available to download here and you can add up to 25 runners to track.
Your runner can be tracked live if they have enabled GPS tracking on the app, or via their race splits when they cross our timing mats at 5km, 10km and other points on the route.
Event Village
Everyone is welcome at our event village so you can arrive with your runner if you prefer and it's open from 07:30.
We have everything you'll need: coffee, snacks and toilets (although we advise you let runners go ahead of you for the latter)! We also have alphabetical meeting points to the East of the event village where you can arrange to meet your runners after the race.
The location is The Old Football Pitches, Hyde Park, W2.
What3Words: Trying.Lock.Pitch
There are activities for all the family, including our Kids Zone. Well-behaved dogs are welcome too but if your pup doesn’t love crowds, it’s best they relax at home this time.
Getting to the Oysho Royal Parks Half
Our Event Guide has detailed instructions on how to get to the event village from nearby stations so please check page 8 or watch our walking directional guides on youtube here.
Where to see your runners!
Some say planning and executing a spectator plan is harder than running the half marathon itself! Your runners just follow the person ahead while you’re dashing across the parks, working out shortcuts, and trying to spot your runner at just the right moment. To make it easier, here are some of the best places to cheer them on.
📍Hyde Park Corner
This is at the start of our race. You can arrive at the Event Village with them, walk down as they head to their start pen and watch them begin their journey out of the parks. You'll also see them return to the parks at 5.5 miles.
Note, this area gets very busy with cheer points and you may not be able to cross the route. Please respect our marshals and runners by following instructions.
📍St James's Park
This is the spectator sweet spot, you'll be able to spot your runner at miles 1, 2, 3 and 4.5 if you're lucky (or quick enough)! We'd recommend heading straight here rather than going to our Event Village first.
📍Hyde Park
There are loads of places to cheer in Hyde Park as this covers miles 6-10. You'll have to cross grass as the paths will be full of our runners but it's a great area to spot people more than once.
📍Kensington Gardens
Our finish line is outside the Albert Memorial and the Royal Albert Hall. If you want to see your runners cross the finish line, this is the place to be! Kensington Gardens is also perfect for spectators who prefer a calm place to spot their runners as we have a designated quiet zone on our route at Mile 11 close to the Round Pond for those that want to support away from loud music and crowds.
Crossing the route
Planning to move between different parts of the route?
There will be designated crossing points during the race, including areas around The Mall, Speaker's Corner and Marlborough Gate which are managed by stewards.
The route will be busy with runners so may not always be possible to cross immediately, so please be patient, follow steward instructions and always give runners priority.
Planning to follow your runner from Hyde Park to Green Park? We’ve mapped out a suggested supporter route to help you navigate out of Hyde Park and make your way towards Green Park and vice versa. Take a look at the route below to help plan your journey before race day.
Cheer sustainably
We love how creative our supporters get each year, the signs are a key highlight of every race! Not only are they a perfect way for your runners to spot you but an amusing sign can get a smile from a stranger when they're starting to struggle.
We want to keep our parks beautiful as well as protect our wildlife, here's how you can help when planning your cheer spots:
✅ Use cardboard or paper for your cheer signs. Put those boxes from your online orders to use!
♻️ Reuse or recycle your signs after the event. Make them generic and save them for when your cheerleader skills are called upon again.
🚫 Please don't bring balloons, confetti or glitter to the park.
🚫 No glass allowed within the parks or the event village (reminder that our route is in the parks and our event site is football playing fields post race)
Supporter tips
- Plan ahead - agree where you'll watch and where you'll meet after the finish the race before race day.
- Ask your runner for their wave - their start wave will help you work out when to expect them at different points on the course.
- Charge your phone - you'll want it for tracking, photos, and messages. Signal is often quite weak due to volume of people so make sure you've arranged where to meet post race!
- Give yourself plenty of time - The Royal Parks will be busy, and road closures and crowds can make journeys between supporter spots will take longer than expected.
- Follow our marshals and volunteers guidance - they are there to keep runners and supporters safe. If you're told to wait before crossing, please wait!
Most importantly, cheer and make some noise!
