Half marathon fundraising boom

The London Landmarks Half Marathon is turning a central London road race into an £18 million charity fundraiser. (fundraising.co.uk) About 20,000 runners took part on Sunday, April 12, on a 13.1-mile course through Westminster and the City of London, with organisers saying the event total was expected to rise from £14.8 million before the start to more than £18 million after race day donations. (fundraising.co.uk) The route passed 16 landmarks including Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, the Shard, the Tower of London and the Gherkin, finishing beside Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square. The event is organised by Tommy’s, the pregnancy and baby charity. (fundraising.co.uk) The race has become one of the bigger charity fixtures on London’s running calendar since its 2018 launch. Fundraising.co.uk said the event had raised £85 million in total by this year, while BBC Local News reported runners had supported more than 800 charitable causes since the race began. (fundraising.co.uk) (sports.yahoo.com) Demand for mass-participation races in the capital has also climbed beyond this event. London Marathon Events said 1,133,813 people applied in the public ballot for the 2026 TCS London Marathon, up 36% from the previous record of 840,318 for 2025. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) London Landmarks has built its own draw around access and spectacle: its website calls it London’s only half marathon through both Westminster and the City, and the 2026 race-day listings put the field at more than 20,000 runners. (llhm.co.uk) (thecityofldn.com) That mix has made charity places a main route into the race. Charity listings for 2026 showed places being promoted by organisations including Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, London’s Air Ambulance and DKMS, as public entry had already tightened. (gosh.org) (fundraising.londonsairambulance.org.uk) (dkms.org.uk) For Tommy’s and its partner charities, the model is simple: fill a closed-road race with tens of thousands of runners, put it in the middle of London, and turn each bib into a fundraising page. On this year’s numbers, that formula is still growing. (fundraising.co.uk)