Half marathons for slow runners

I’ve already written a list with Marathons for slow runners and I’ve also written about the Marathon Majors and their cut off times. So, I thought I also do a list with half marathons and their cut off times. It is a bit easier to find a half with a longer cut off time than it is to find a marathon. The longer the distance, the tighter the cut off usually gets compared to the distance, with road races at least, with trail races time is less of an issue since there often aren’t any major roads that need to be closed for those.

This is by no means a complete list, but it’s just to give you an idea. Races in North America often have longer cut off times than in Europe, so there are probably a lot more halfs you would be able to find there with a longer time limit. If you think I missed an important one, let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

So, if you are a slower runner, like me, you might want to consider these half marathons:

• Reykjavik Half – 7:30 hours, same cut off as the marathon.
• London Landmark Half – 4:00 time limit
• Vancouver Half – 4:00 time limit
• Rock ‘n Roll Las Vegas – 4:00 time limit
• Rock ‘n Roll Arizona – 4:00 cut off
• Lissabon Half – 3:30 cut off
• Great North Run – 3:30 after which you can continue on the pavement. Claims to be the biggest half in the world.
• Rock ‘n Roll Liverpool – 3:30 time limit
• Rock ‘n Roll Beijing – 3:30 time limit
• Rock ‘n Roll Dublin – 3:30 time limit
• Amstelveen Half – 3:30 cut off
• San Francisco Half – 3:00 or 3:30 depending on if you do the first or second half of the course.
• Berlin Half – 3:15 cut off
• Edinburgh Half – 3:15 time limit
• Royal Parks Half – 2:30 cut off for the 6 mile mark, after that you can continue in the park.
• Götenborgvarvet Half – 3:00 time limit, they also claim to be the largest half in the world. However, as far as I can tell there were about 43.000 finishers in the Great North Run in 2019 and around 26.000 finishers in Götenborgvarvet, but they claim to have over 60.000 runners versus over 57.000 for the Great North Run. So, who knows.
• Athens Half – 3:00, although you can continue at your own risk after the cut off.
• Rock ‘n Roll Madrid– 3:00 time limit
• Vienna Half – 3:00 cut off
• Venloop Half – 3:00 cut off
• Antwerp Night Half Marathon – 3:00 time limit
• Luxembourg Night Half Marathon – 3:00 cut off
• New York City Half – 3:00 time limit
• Groet uit Schoorl Half – 3:00 time limit
• Copenhagen Half – 3:00 cut off
• Leiden Half – 3:00 cut off, if they can decide wether or not to take you out of the race, that is.
• Prague Half – 3:00 time limit
• Amsterdam Half – 2:50 cut off, although they usually just let you finish.