Hamburg Half Marathon

Course & Elevation

The hella hamburg halbmarathon is a road half marathon through the centre of Hamburg, held on a Sunday in late June and organised by BMS Die Laufgesellschaft. It starts on the Reeperbahn in St. Pauli and finishes at the Messe exhibition grounds near Dammtor station, on an officially measured point-to-point course that the organiser describes as mostly flat and fully asphalted. The route heads west into Altona, returns east along the Elbe past the Fischmarkt and the Landungsbrücken, runs into the city centre and passes the Binnenalster, and it is run in waves from early morning, with the field capped at 24,000 for 2027. The race began in 1995 as the Hamburg-Mannheimer-Cup, a multi-lap event in the Stadtpark; since 2003 it has started on the Reeperbahn and been run only as a half marathon. Hella has been title sponsor since 2004, and it holds a World Athletics Road Race Label for 2026. The finish cut-off is 3 hours 30 minutes. The course records are 1:00:52 (Merhawi Kesete, 2015) and 1:10:05 (Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, 2023). The 2026 edition was moved from 28 June to 25 October because of heat.