Valletta Half-marathon, 22nd March 2026

Two intrepid Claremont Road Runners enjoyed a break in Malta this weekend. Oh, and they ran a half-marathon!

Firstly, another week, another exotic race report from our Maltese Falcon, Lynne Cornell:

“The reason behind me doing this race go back to March 2023. I was at the start of the Lisbon half marathon and got chatting to a chap from Malta. He asked if I’d been and I said it was lovely. He then suggested I should do the Valletta half-‘historic route and well organised’.

I parked that thought until July 2025 when an email from World Marathons highlighted entries were open for March 2026 for Valletta. I entered without hesitation and then asked Steve if he fancied a trip back to Malta! Fortunately he was up for it and so the search began for where to stay, bearing in mind the race starts at 7am!

Accommodation and flights sorted, that was it until we arrived on Thursday and number collected on Friday along with the official bag for belongings for bag drop – no other bags accepted! As I set off at 5:30 on my 1.5 mile walk to the start, conditions were cool and dry despite a forecast of rain. Strange walking to the start of a race in the dark.

Arrived at the start area and handed my bag over. The sunrise was gorgeous. Got chatting to an American lady who had arrived from Miami the day before and spent a very pleasant half an hour chatting. She has recommended the Antarctic marathon but I’m not sure Steve would be so agreeable to that one!

Then we lined up, a bit of a briefing and then at 7am we were off. A lovely route that takes in Sliema, Msida ,Valletta (right to the tip and past Fort St Elmo), alongside the Grand Harbour to Hamrun and Marsa, past the shipyard at Cospicua and finally to the finish at Fort St Angelo in Vittoriosa. Beautiful.

A great route – loads of historic sites, breathtaking views, water stops every 5k and fantastic marshalls. Quite hilly in parts, Garmin shows 393m ascent and 409m descent. The weather remained kind – about 20 minutes of light rain in the 2nd half of the run which was very welcome. During my last mile a very tall, very quick man shot past me – the winner of the marathon which started at 6:30. The event also has 10k, 5k and a ‘walkathon’ of the half marathon route.

At the end a bottle of water and a medal. Found the bag collection point and back to Sliema on prepaid shuttle bus. Back in apartment by 10:15. A distinct advantage of the early start meant we had the rest of the day to explore this beautiful island. This is definitely a favourite (!) although there are still lots of runs left on my bucket list.”

And this is Michael Teasdale’s take on the trip:

“Three things La Valette Half Marathon and the Great North Run have in common: they both feature an underpass in the opening kilometres (I did try to get an oggy oggy oggy going), they both have a net elevation loss and, despite that net elevation loss, they both are by no means flat.

La Valette starts early: it’s 7 o’clock when a Maltese Musketeer gets us underway on the Mediterranean waterfront of Sliema (fortunately close to our hotel). It follows the road towards the tip of Sliema before crossing to the Marsamxett Harbour side through the aforementioned underpass. This is where the race really becomes one of the most spectacular that I’ve run. Across the harbour sits the walled capital city of Valetta and we follow the harbour towards it, taking in the view of Manoel Island from all sides in the process. The first major climb comes on the approach to the entrance to Valetta at the Porte des Bombes, before a left turn takes us into the Notre Dame ditch (more dramatic than it sounds) between two sets of defensive walls. Uphill again to The Mall and then onto the Great Siege Road which takes us back to the harbour and we follow this road around Valetta, past Fort St Elmo and exiting Valetta beneath Fort Lascaris. At this point the finish line has already been in sight, sitting on the waterfront below Fort St Angelo, across Grand Harbour. Only 10km to go!

The route does lose its sightseeing potential the further up Grand Harbour we go, becoming more industrial and skirting along a motorway. This coincides with the forecast rain finally starting (where previously it had just been cool but humid) though not lasting too long. A grim climb greets us on the other side of Grand Harbour and I’m not ashamed to say I walked the last hundred metres or so of it, but the downhill took us towards the 3 Cities with the finish line being in the second of these. First though was the uphill approach to the entrance of Senglea. This was worthy of a photo although I annoyingly dropped my hotel key card in the process of getting my phone out of my pocket. The uphill continued after the gates and again I had to walk the last part. The day before we had walked the 3 Cities so I knew that was the last climb of the route, however the final few kilometres still felt long knowing exactly how far I had to run – the full loop around Senglea and then to Fort St Angelo in Vittoriosa. The finish line came into sight again with just under two kilometres to go, those final kilometres being relievingly flat along the Senglea side of Dockyard Creek and back up the Vittoriosa side. There were more Maltese reenactors on the approach the the finish line holding an array of historical flags and coupled with Fort St Angelo looming looking large ahead of me made for quite the finishing straight.

I crossed the line in 2:17:41, collected the hefty medal from the race village and waited for Melissa who was not far behind me (she finished in 2:31:15). There was one final climb of the day: that up to the shuttle bus to take us back to the start line. This was my second overseas race, the first being the Funchal Half Marathon in Madeira, and it was definitely my favourite despite being tougher.”

Women
Position	Runner	Time
72	Lynne Cornell	1:52:37

Men
Position	Runner	Time
721	Michael Teasdale	2:17:41