Course & Elevation
The Istanbul Half Marathon, sponsored as the Türkiye İş Bankası İstanbul Yarı Maratonu, is a road race through Istanbul's Historic Peninsula, held on a Sunday in April. It is organised by Spor İstanbul, a company of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and the 21st edition was run on 19 April 2026. A 10K starts earlier on the same morning from the same place. Both races start and finish in the Yenikapı event area, and the 21K elite and mass start is at 9:15am. The 21K follows the coastal road along Kennedy Avenue past Kumkapı, Cankurtaran and Sarayburnu, through Sirkeci and Eminönü, then crosses the Galata Bridge towards Balat before coming back to Yenikapı. The organisers call it one of the fastest courses in the world, and the race holds a World Athletics Gold Label, one of ten half marathons worldwide and three in Europe to do so. The 21K closes at 12:40pm. It also serves as the Turkish half marathon championship. About 15,000 people took part in the 21K and 10K in 2026, a record for the event, and the course records are 59:15 for men and 1:04:02 for women.
Course Facts
Weather
Typical climate for the race month — an estimate, not a forecast or a race-day record
12°C
Temperature
75%
Humidity
33%
Rain Chance
April in Istanbul is cool and damp: highs average about 16°C and lows about 8°C, humidity is around 75%, and rain is recorded on roughly ten days of the month.
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