Budapest Half Marathon

Course & Elevation

The Wizz Air Budapest Half Marathon is a half marathon through central Budapest, held on a Sunday in early September. It is run by the city sports office, Budapest Sportiroda (BSI), and opens its autumn running season. Start and finish are on the Pázmány Péter Promenade on the Buda side, beside the ELTE Lágymányos campus. The published route follows the lower embankment of Buda north to the Árpád Bridge, crosses the middle of Margaret Island and returns over the Margaret Bridge to the Pest side. It then runs south along the lower embankment of Pest to the Liberty Bridge, crosses back to Buda and follows the University Quay to the finish. The organisers say the course passes several UNESCO World Heritage sites. A 10 km race and two- and three-person relays are held on the same day. The race starts at 8:00 and the cut-off is three hours net time. The half marathon has run as a stand-alone September race since 1996, when the first Nike Budapest International Half Marathon drew nearly two thousand runners. In 2026 more than 24,000 entries were registered across all distances, a record for a Hungarian half marathon event, from 117 countries.