Start Broad Street, near Trinity College and the Clarendon Building, Sunday 13th October 2019, 9.30am
Under the cheery umbrella of Virgin Sport, the Oxford Half Marathon is always a fun occasion. With thousands of participants of varying athletic ability and a 13-mile course taking in the town centre, Banbury Road, Old Marston and the University Parks, the event has a great atmosphere, so it's fun to spectate as well as to take part. And new for this year, the organisers have taken the plunge in going plastic free, having replaced 25,000 plastic kit bags with cotton ones and discontinuing giving out disposable water bottles.
The best places to view for most action will be the start and finish (Broad St, and Parks Rd respectively) though if you're athletic the junction of Banbury and Marston Ferry Rds will be seeing a lot of action in both directions somewhere around the middle of the race, and families could dash around Oxford Uni Parks getting some exercise of their own while cheering on the racers.
Some runners are grateful to be offered a soft, easy-to-swallow sugar boost like jelly babies. It's best to hold these out in something like wide, shallow tupperware so it's easy for the runner to grab some and carry on. Be careful not to get in the way!
You can see details of the route on the event website, and a map of road closures can be found here.
Oxford Bus Company are laying on extra Park & Ride services, as the city centre will be even less hospitable for cars than usual. Their page also tells you about bus route changes - the buses that would normally go up Banbury Rd mostly move to Woodstock Rd instead, for instance.
Location
Start Broad Street, near Trinity College and the Clarendon Building