Love Island winner Ciaran Davies takes on the Shoreditch Half alongside 12,000 runners as more than £110,000 is raised for charity.
Love Island: All Stars winner Ciaran Davies was among 12,000 runners taking on 13.1 miles through East London as Shoreditch’s young road race doubled its distance and raised more than £110,000 for charity.
There are less strenuous ways to spend a Sunday morning after winning Love Island.
Ciaran Davies chose 13.1 miles through East London.
The Welsh surveyor-turned-reality star, who won Love Island: All Stars with Samie Elishi in February, joined 12,000 runners for the Shoreditch Half on Sunday 20 September as the event stepped up dramatically from the 10K with which it launched only a year earlier.
Around 15,000 supporters lined the course, while runners collectively raised more than £110,000 for charity. For an event in only its second year, it was quite an escalation.
Davies ran as part of a six-strong team alongside Jenny Mannion, Ellie Bradley, Manawa Owens, Catrina Mulvihill and Lauren Foster.
From 10K to 12,000 half-marathon runners
Saucony Run Shoreditch made its debut as a 10K in 2025. Demand prompted organisers to extend the distance to a half marathon and increase the number of available places for 2026.
Every one of the 12,000 places was taken.
Starting and finishing beside Shoreditch Park, the new 13.1-mile route carried runners through Hoxton Market, Clissold Park, Stoke Newington and De Beauvoir.
That change of distance altered rather more than the number printed on the race bib. A half marathon asks runners to manage effort for long enough that early enthusiasm can become a fairly expensive commodity somewhere around the latter stages.
For thousands of recreational runners sharing the course, simply reaching the finish represented the day’s main result.
Patrick Maher and Becky Briggs set the pace
Some, naturally, got there considerably sooner than others.
Patrick Maher won the men’s race in 1:09:15, with Thomas Holliday second in 1:09:32 and Magnus Ross third in 1:10:27.
Becky Briggs led the women’s field home in 1:17:12. Sophie Bradick followed in 1:18:25, with Charlotte Smith completing the top three in 1:19:51.
Behind the leading runners came the mixture typical of a large urban half marathon: experienced competitors alongside people taking on the distance for the first time.
Shoreditch Park served as the central event hub, with food, music and entertainment extending the occasion beyond the start and finish lines.
More than £110,000 raised for charity
The finishing times told only part of the day’s story.
Runners raised more than £110,000 for the race’s official charity partners, with Alzheimer’s Society acting as headline charity partner alongside Bart’s Charity and Tommy’s.
Cameron Black, Vice President & General Manager at Saucony EMEA, said:
“Seeing 12,000 runners take to the streets for the first-ever Run Shoreditch Half, supported by so many people from across the local community, was a brilliant demonstration of what Run As One is all about.”
Black said the intention had been to create the event with Shoreditch rather than simply bring a race into the area, involving local running crews, businesses and creatives in the build-up.
With roughly 15,000 supporters joining the 12,000 entrants, the result was a morning in which the streets themselves became part of the event.
Ciaran Davies swaps the villa for 13.1 miles
Davies’ appearance provided one of the day’s more recognisable faces.
Seven months after he and Elishi won the public vote on Love Island: All Stars, he was lining up alongside thousands of runners rather than fellow islanders, joining Mannion, Bradley, Owens, Mulvihill and Foster for the East London race.
The group took part around CELSIUS’ involvement as Official Energy Drink Partner of the Shoreditch Half.
The brand had a presence from the event village through to the finish, with sampling, a DJ, a halfway-point screen and 12,000 cans available for runners after completing the course.
CELSIUS is also continuing its partnership with Motiv at the Oxford Half on 11 October.
For Shoreditch, however, the more significant number may be 12,000. A race that began with a 10K in 2025 had, within a year, filled every place in its first half marathon.
That’s quite a growth spurt. And considerably harder on the calves.
