Southampton Marathon

Location: Southampton
Country: United Kingdom
Website: https://www.southamptonmarathon.co.uk/
2025 Marathon Date: 06/04/2025
2026 Marathon Date: 03/05/2026
Winning Time 2025: 2:35:08
% Sub-3s: 2–5%
# Sub-3s: 10–49
Total Runners: 1k–3k

The Southampton Marathon is a spring event held in the south coast port city of Southampton, offering a mix of historic sites, waterfront views and suburban stretches. With a relatively small field and a challenging but honest course, it has become a popular choice for UK-based runners looking for a well-organised race outside the major-city circuit.

The route begins and ends in the city centre, taking runners past Southampton’s historic Bargate and through St Mary’s Stadium before heading east towards the Itchen Bridge. From there, the course loops through residential areas, parkland and university campuses, offering varied terrain and some undulating sections. The iconic Itchen Bridge provides a striking vista across the River Itchen but introduces one of the route’s steeper climbs, which runners must tackle twice.

Spring weather in southern England is typically mild. Start-line temperatures usually fall between 8–13°C, with a mix of sun, cloud and occasional light rain. Wind across the bridge section can be a factor, but conditions are generally favourable for performance-focused racing.

The event caters to multiple race distances on the same day, but marathon runners benefit from clear signage and designated lanes. Organisation is solid, with a good spread of aid stations and reliable volunteer support. While not a course designed purely for speed, it rewards strength and discipline, particularly in the second half.

For sub-3 aspirants, the Southampton Marathon is less about chasing PBs and more about testing race-day execution on a route with mixed terrain and changing rhythm. The field tends to attract committed club runners from across the south of England, and there is usually enough quality at the front end to provide pacing benchmarks.

While it lacks the flat profile of purpose-built PB courses, the Southampton Marathon offers a satisfying, well-supported race in a city with character, variety and enough challenge to make a strong sub-3 performance especially rewarding.