Dublin City Half Marathon

The Dublin City Half Marathon is a 21.1km road race through Dublin's north side, launched in 2025 by the Dublin Marathon Group in partnership with Dublin City Council. The race starts on O'Connell Street in the city centre, heads out through the north inner city toward Raheny, follows the Clontarf seafront along Dublin Bay, and returns to finish back in the North East Inner-City. Nearly 12,000 runners took part in the inaugural 2025 edition; the 2026 edition grew to roughly 13,000 finishers under an oversubscribed ballot of 13,200 places. Entry is allocated by public ballot rather than first-come registration, a change made after the 2025 race to keep the process fair as demand grew. The Dublin Marathon Group also organizes the Irish Life Dublin Marathon each October and the separate Irish Life Dublin Half Marathon each September — the Dublin City Half Marathon is a distinct spring event with its own branding, date, and title sponsor. Runners get a flat, largely coastal course, strong crowd support from Dublin City Council-backed street closures, wave starts to manage the field, and a finisher medal and t-shirt. The race has a 3.5-hour course limit and welcomes both runners and walkers, with pacers and tail walkers on course.