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The Geely Auto Hangzhou Marathon 2026 is one of China’s major city road races and a World Athletics Gold Label event. The 2026 edition is scheduled for Sunday, 1 November and will bring 36,000 runners to Hangzhou, with 22,000 places in the marathon and 14,000 in the half marathon.
Both races start from Huanglong Sports Center at 07:00. The marathon covers 42.195 km and finishes inside Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, while the 21.0975 km half marathon finishes at Civic Square. The redesigned 2026 marathon route links two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, West Lake and the Grand Canal, and passes more than 20 city landmarks. The course is intended to show several different faces of Hangzhou, moving from the historic West Lake and old-city areas through the Qiantang River corridor and into the modern Asian Games precinct.
Registration opened globally on 23 June 2026 and closed on 15 July, with places allocated through a ballot. The 2026 process added a second lottery round and a dedicated overseas-runner channel. Marathon applicants were required to show, within the previous 24 months, either one full-marathon finish or two half-marathon finishes. Half-marathon applicants needed two results at 10 km or longer. Successful entrants were also required to submit a medical report dated from 1 November 2025 onwards that includes blood-pressure and ECG checks.
The event has increased its field from the previous edition and is also adding more technology to race operations, including automated race-number assignment, AI-supported video services, drone-assisted medical support and AI traffic management. For travelling runners, Hangzhou’s main attraction is the combination of a large, internationally recognised race with a course built around some of the city’s best-known cultural and riverfront precincts. Detailed race-pack collection dates, final participant instructions and any late operational changes should be checked on the official event channels closer to race week.