Community Entries

Community entries for The Big Half 2024 have sold out.

Charity places are still available in The Big Half 2024 – find out more about running for charity here.

Which groups are eligible?

We define a community group as a local group or organisation, community sports club, school or local charity in London that benefits its local community.

Eligible groups can be formal or informal (with or without a constitution) so long as they operate in London and support the wellbeing of the group’s local people. This can be by providing access to sport and physical activity, offering support with mental and emotional health, or running projects that tackle social challenges in the local community.

Running or athletics clubs are only eligible for community entries if they can show a benefit to their local community that reaches more widely than their members, or practical steps they have taken to be inclusive and accessible, particularly to ethnically diverse communities.

Charities whose beneficiaries are not solely based in London, or charities that operate nationally or internationally, are not eligible for community entries and must instead apply for charity places.

There are a limited number of community entries each year and we cannot guarantee that a group that has had community entries in previous years will be allocated these places again in the current year.

If you have any additional questions, or are unsure whether your group meets the criteria, please email us.

Concessions

We want The Big Half to be open and accessible to everyone. Please email us if you are keen to participate but cannot afford the entry price, or receive Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance or any other state support.

FAQs

Applications for community entries have now closed, including those for additional places. If you have been allocated community entries already, please encourage your runners to complete their registration.
If you are having trouble using Let's Do This, please have a look at their Community Entry Guide here.
If you paid for the places upfront (‘Community group to pay’), you are able to cancel and re-allocate places using your Partner Dashboard. You can find out more in the Community Entry Guide here.

If your individual runners have paid for their places, you are not able to cancel their places on their behalf. If a runner can no longer participate, please ask them to email us.

If you would like to increase your allocation due to cancellations, please make another application for places, detailing this as the reason.
Community entries are hugely popular with communities across London and we have to manage the interest as best we can, which sometimes means allocating groups a smaller number of places than they have requested. This ensures that we can distribute places fairly.

If you are keen for a larger allocation, please fill your current allocation first and then submit another request. We will assess this according to our availability of places.
Community groups that previously had community entries are not necessarily still eligible. Please see the definition and if you are still unsure, email us.
The current maximum is set at 100 entries per group, but this is assessed on a case-by-case basis. If you would like to apply for more than 100 places and are confident about filling them, please email us.
All participants are given a start time that is based on their predicted finish time. As a result of this we are unable to guarantee all participants from one community group can start together.
No, community entries are distributed to a community group and its members. The groups do not have to be formal organisations, as per the definition (above). At this moment, individuals cannot apply for individual community entries but are encouraged to either join a local community group or general entry via Let's Do This.
While we encourage individuals to use their community entries to fundraise for charities or causes close to their heart, we are unable to approve applications where the full allocation of places is solely to fundraise for the organisation that has made the application. Please email our Charities Team if you are interested in purchasing charity places.