Budapest Marathon

The Budapest Marathon is an annual marathon and sport event hosted by the city of Budapest, Hungary since 1961. It is normally held at the beginning of October or the end of September. Since 1984 Budapest Sport Iroda (BSI) has managed the event.

The Budapest Marathons – with different supporters like IBUSZ, Kaiser’s-Plus, Plus, then SPAR - have been attracting more and more people from inside and outside the country since 1984 by BSI. The first one was organized in April - there were already a marathon-brochure and a T-shirt. In 1994 and 1995 there was a pause in the history of the event, but in 1996 the half marathon distance became an independent race and since that time it has been held in autumn each year.

The Budapest Marathon started off from a few different locations during its history but for a long while the race center has been situated at the Városliget (City Park). The race starts in Hősök tere (Heroes' Square), and it takes more than 15 minutes for the runners to pass the start line. The route of the marathon has changed a lot in the course of time, but the runners always go through many beautiful sights.

Hungary’s biggest marathon crosses two sites which are part of UNESCO world heritage, is becoming more popular. The number of the foreign runners is increasing continuously and a lot of them keep returning.

2015 race was a record; none of the Hungarian sport events had so many participants before: 27,860 athletes from 80 countries competed in one of the distances at the 30th SPAR Budapest Marathon.

Among men Zoltán Kiss can feel proud of himself because no one ever was faster than him during a Budapest Marathon: his 2:15:04 time in 1984 is still a record. Among women Simona Staicu has the best time ever, she was able to stand on the podium four times and in 2010 she performed the distance in 2:37:47.

The race starts at Hősök tere (Heroes' Square) and finishes in Városliget (City Park). Much of the route stays close to the River Danube. After the contest, competitors can bathe their aching feet in the Széchenyi thermal bath.

In the early history of the race, it was known as the Csepeli Nemzetközi Maraton (Csepel International Marathon). It obtained its current name in 1981.