SPAR Budapest Marathon Festival
10 to 11 October
Budapest’s biggest running weekend, with the marathon itself on the Sunday and a field drawn from more than 120 countries. Watching is free and the Danube bank turns into a two-day street festival, though the races themselves are entered in advance and most of them charge. Saturday keeps to the shorter races, nothing longer than 10 km, with city walking tours of up to about 21.5 km alongside them.
About the event
Budapest Sportiroda puts the weekend on and builds the festival centre on the Buda embankment below the university campus, with exhibitors, charity stands and supporters’ points along the routes. The Sunday marathon starts at 9:00, alongside the two-person Powerade pairs race and the four-person relay covering the same 42.195 km. The 30 km leaves Fővám tér in waves from 9:40 and the half marathon leaves the lower embankment at the Buda end of Margaret Bridge from 10:25. Both the half and the 14 km filled weeks ago. Saturday’s FODISZ equal opportunities race puts disabled and able-bodied entrants on the same 500 metre course, which can be walked rather than run, and it has to be entered in advance. Telekom Live streams the marathon on YouTube.
Dates and times
- 10 to 11 OctoberSaturday races from 8:00, Sunday races from 9:00
