Running and Triathlon Clubs in Brighton & Hove

1. Start with parkrun

If you have just moved to Brighton and want to meet runners, the lowest-pressure first step is parkrun: a free, timed 5k that runs every Saturday at 9:00am. You register once on the parkrun website, print your barcode, and turn up. Nobody checks your pace and most events end with coffee. Four events sit inside the city, and each one publishes its own course page:

• Hove Promenade parkrun starts at Hove Lawns (Kingsway, BN3 2FR). The 5k is run entirely on tarmac paths, which makes it the flattest and fastest of the four.
• Preston Park parkrun is another 5k on tarmac paths, in the park beside the velodrome.
• East Brighton parkrun is held at East Brighton Park (Wilson Avenue, BN2 5UA).
• Bevendean Down parkrun is the odd one out: a 5k on grassy downland, with footpath access only, so the event page asks you to arrive early.

Many club members use parkrun as a weekly time trial, so you will often see club vests there. Brighton Phoenix, for example, lists the Saturday parkrun in its own training timetable. For everyday routes, see our guide to seafront running routes.

2. Running clubs in Brighton & Hove

The city has several long-established athletics clubs, plus a women-only club. Each description below comes from the club's own website, and each club makes its own decisions about membership, so treat our summary as a starting point.

Brighton & Hove AC

A mixed-age athletics club whose website says it welcomes members aged "9 or 99". The join page asks newcomers to speak to a coach or have a trial first. The membership year runs from 1 January to 31 December, it is handled through the Spond app, and the fee includes England Athletics membership. Club nights are at Withdean Stadium. The site noted that the under-12 group was closed to new members when we checked.

Brighton Phoenix

Brighton Phoenix covers both athletics and triathlon. Its About page describes around 700 members, ages nine and up, and coaches qualified through UK Athletics and British Triathlon. The training page offers three taster sessions for new members and lists a weekly timetable that includes a Wednesday track night, Thursday senior long runs at 18:30, and Saturday parkrun at 09:00.

Arena 80 AC

Arena 80 is a road and cross-country club with coached evening sessions four nights a week: a Monday track session at Withdean, Tuesday and Thursday sessions at Hove Park, and a Wednesday run on the Downs or seafront. The club's homepage states a membership fee of £45 a year (£25 for under-26s) for first-claim members, plus a separate England Athletics fee of £19. Please check the club for current figures. Watch the web address: the genuine club site ends in .co.uk.

Brighton & Hove Women's Running Club

BHWRC is open to women aged 18 and over, is affiliated to England Athletics, and offers a trial run before you join. The club says it runs almost every day, so there is usually a session to try.

For coaching and a local overview, RunBrighton lists the clubs above and is a training partner of the Brighton Half Marathon.

3. Triathlon in Brighton

Brighton Tri Club welcomes adults aged 18 and over (its homepage also says 16 to 18-year-olds are welcome). Training happens at Preston Park Velodrome, on the seafront, at Wadurs Pool and at Preston Park parkrun. New people can take a free month's trial membership through the join page. The trial sessions listed there are pool swims on Tuesday and Thursday (£7.50 each), a free Wednesday seafront run and a free Saturday session at the velodrome.

Brighton Phoenix also trains triathletes, with autumn-to-spring swim training on Thursday evenings at Roedean School according to its timetable. If you are curious about racing, our race calendar covers the triathlon and other events on the seafront, and our sea swimming guide covers the open-water side.

4. How to choose a club

Fees and facilities matter less than whether you will actually turn up. A few practical checks:

• Try before you pay. Brighton Phoenix, Brighton Tri Club, BHWRC and Brighton & Hove AC all describe a trial or taster route.
• Check the membership year. Brighton & Hove AC runs 1 January to 31 December, so ask what joining in the autumn means.
• Ask about England Athletics registration. Some clubs include it in the fee and others add it on top (Arena 80 states it separately).
• Look at the timetable. A Hove Park Thursday and a Withdean Monday suit different commutes.
• Be honest about your level. Most of these clubs coach beginners, but a 5k newcomer and an experienced marathoner will want different groups.

Your first session

Bring a water bottle, wear something reflective if you are going out after dark, and tell the coach if you are new or returning from injury. Evening sessions in winter often run on lit paths or at the track, and coaches usually split the group by pace on the night. Do not worry about turning up in the wrong kit: nobody will mind. Give any club at least three sessions before deciding, which is also how many tasters Brighton Phoenix offers.

There are also informal social running groups in the city. We have only listed clubs whose own websites we could read this month, so look for those through local noticeboards and RunBrighton.

To compare more options, the England Athletics club finder lists affiliated athletics and running clubs. For triathlon, use the club finder on the British Triathlon website. We could not open that site with our automated checker, so we have not linked it; look it up directly.