Guilin Marathon 2026

The 2026 Guilin Marathon is a major destination road race through central Guilin in Guangxi, with a combined field of 25,000 runners. World Athletics lists the race in its 2026 Label Road Races calendar. The official programme offers a 42.195 km marathon for 12,000 runners and a 21.0975 km half marathon for 13,000 runners.

Both races start at Guilin Central Square and finish at Guilin Sports Center. The marathon follows a broad city route through Zhongshan, Binjiang and riverside roads, continuing via Ludi Road, the Taohua River corridor, the Li River area and several city bridges before reaching the sports-centre finish. The half marathon shares much of the central-city and riverside character on a shorter course. Current event promotion highlights Guilin's distinctive combination of the Li River, urban lakes and karst scenery, making the race particularly attractive to travelling runners.

Race-day check-in is scheduled from 05:30 to 06:50, with the event beginning at 07:00 local time. The organiser will use split-gun starts, but the exact category-by-category gun sequence is still to be published, so ARC does not assign unverified individual flag-off times. The half marathon has a three-hour cut-off and the full marathon a six-hour cut-off, measured from the final gun. Timing mats are used at the start, every 5 km, the half-marathon point, turnarounds and finish. Hydration is provided at regular intervals, with food stations from 12.5 km onward.

Registration runs from 4 September at 14:00 to 15 October at 18:00 China Standard Time. If applications exceed the available places, entries are decided by ballot, with results scheduled for 20 October. Marathon entrants must be at least 20 years old and half-marathon entrants at least 18, and both categories require recent qualifying race evidence or the organiser's approved qualification-test records.

Race packs must be collected in person using the identification supplied at registration. Proxy collection and postal delivery are not offered; the exact 2026 collection venue and hours remain to be announced. Race-day baggage drop operates from 05:00 to 06:45, with collection closing at 10:30 for half-marathon runners and 13:30 for marathon runners.