The invention relates to the field of timing of athletic contests and particularly relates to a self-service electronic timing system and method for running. The self-service electronic timing system comprises a self-service registration host, a starting point timing host, a terminal point timing host and a data server, wherein the self-service registration host is used by athletes to sign in and is used for assigning RFID cards to the athletes; the starting point timing host is used for automatically timing when the athletes run through a starting line and sending registration items of the athletes to the terminal point timing host; the terminal point timing host is used for inquiring the registration items of the athletes, judging whether the athletes finish the registration items or the rest of turns of the registration items, stopping timing after confirming that the athletes fish the registration items and uploading timing results to the data server; the data server is used for storing basic information of the athletes and receiving and storing the timing results of the corresponding registration items of the athletes. According to the self-service electronic timing system and method for running, a complete self-testing manner is utilized without referees, ordering and timing, so that the problems that the number of testers is large while the number of referees is small, and the schedule is tight are solved; meanwhile, test scores are accurate, effective and fair, and human factors are reduced.