It was just before the start of last year’s edition that Ian Allerton, long-time organiser of the Hackney Half, realised quite how much the race had grown.
“I think we knew we’d made it when what felt like every Lime bike in London turned up,” says the event director, who has been involved in every Hackney Half since it launched in 2014. “Mabley Green is just next to the Hackney Marshes, about 400 metres from the start, and it’s about as far as the geofence would allow you to go. So, we ended up with a sea of Lime bikes strewn there. It was like, wow, this is big.”
