The Course: A City Loop Over Three Bridges
VPBank organised the race for the sixth year in a row in 2025 [1]. The 2025 race started from the Hoàn Kiếm Lake area, with both the start and the finish in the city centre [2]. For 2026 the organiser lists the finish on the Trần Nhân Tông pedestrian street [3].
The marathon takes in four lakes, Hoàn Kiếm, West Lake, Trúc Bạch and Thiền Quang, and three bridges, Long Biên, Nhật Tân and Đông Trù. It also passes the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Ba Đình Square and the Thăng Long Imperial Citadel, and the organiser names Ô Quan Chưởng and the Hanoi Flag Tower along the way [1][2]. All four distances are AIMS-certified [1][2].
The Weather: Mild but Saturated
Noi Bai airport, about 22 km north of the start, recorded 21°C at 1.30am, with a dew point of 20°C, 94% humidity and a 4-knot wind [4]. It stayed at 21°C and around 94% humidity until 5.30am [4]. After that the air dried and warmed slowly: 22°C and 78% at 6am, 23°C at 7am, 24°C at 7.30am and 25°C with 65% humidity at 8am, about six and a half hours after the marathon start [4]. Tuổi Trẻ described the morning as about 20°C and dry [5].
That is mild for a Southeast Asian marathon, though a dew point of 20°C still slows the cooling effect of sweat. A 4:30 marathoner finished at about 6am, still in 21°C to 22°C air [6][4].
The results reflect the conditions. Of 1,487 marathon starters, 1,457 (98%) finished officially, and the average finish was 4:23:51 for men and 4:32:38 for women [6].
Start Times, Aid and Cut-offs
The marathon started at 1.30am [5]. Timing data put the half marathon off at 3am, the 10 km at 4am and the 5 km at 5.30am [6][7][8].
Before the race the organiser said there would be 25 water stations and 10 cheering stations run by running clubs [2]. VnExpress reported that water, medical and rescue points were placed more densely than in 2024, especially on the bridge ramps, around West Lake and near the Opera House [1]. After the race the organiser reported nearly 30 water, cheering and medical stations and nearly 1,000 volunteers [5].
The results point to limits of about six and a half hours for the marathon and three and a half for the half: the slowest official finishers crossed in 6:28:42 and 3:32:54 [6][7]. For 2026 the official rules give the marathon six hours 30 minutes and the half three hours 30 minutes from the last start wave, and say water and medical stations close on the same schedule as the course [9]. The race page on the same site lists six hours for the marathon, three for the half and two for the 10 km [3]. If you expect to be near the limit, ask the organiser which applies.
How Fast the Field Is
Huỳnh Anh Khôi won the marathon in 2:25:16, about two minutes faster than he had run a month earlier, ahead of the SEA Games 5,000 m and 10,000 m champion Nguyễn Văn Lai in 2:26:12 and Phạm Đức Thọ in 2:37:42 [6][10]. The former SEA Games 10,000 m champion Phạm Thị Hồng Lệ ran alone for almost the whole race and won the women's marathon in 2:53:58, 15th overall, from Doãn Thị Oanh in 2:55:26 and Thái Thị Hồng in 3:03:56 [6][10].
Behind the leaders the field thins quickly. Tenth place in the marathon was 2:50:34 for men and 3:18:32 for women, and 33 runners broke three hours [6]. The half marathon had 2,788 official finishers; Japan's Makino Saeki won it in 1:13:02 and Nguyễn Khánh Ly in 1:25:07, and tenth place was 1:16:46 for men and 1:31:51 for women [7]. The organiser put the prize pool at more than VND 700 million across more than 100 categories [11].
Race Weekend Logistics
Everything happens around Hoàn Kiếm Lake. The expo and bib collection ran on the lakeside pedestrian streets from the afternoon of Friday 24 October [1], with bibs handed out at Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục Square until 5pm on Saturday 25 October [12]. The race kit included a Coolmate race shirt, a bag and an energy bar [1]. The opening concert, VPBank Prime Night, was on the Friday evening [1], and the organiser counted more than 50,000 visits to the lakeside area over the three days [5][10].
Finishers could hang their bib on a Prosperity Tree at the finish; for each one the organiser gave VND 30,000 to plant bamboo against flooding in Nghệ An, and about 7,000 bibs raised about VND 200 million [5][10].
Should You Enter the 2026 Race?
Yes, if you want a big Hanoi marathon in mild air, on a course that starts and finishes in the centre, and you can run through the night. The 98% marathon finish rate in 2025 [6] suggests the conditions are kind to slower runners.
Think twice if you cannot race well without sleep, or if you need to know the exact cut-off before you enter [3][9]. The Techcombank Hanoi International Marathon, on 4 October 2026, is a separate race two weeks earlier [13].
The 2026 race is on Sunday 18 October [3]. The official site lists standard prices of VND 1,668,000 for the marathon, 1,268,000 for the half, 988,000 for the 10 km and 668,000 for the 5 km, sold through CTicket [3]. Bibs can be transferred through the official website within a window the organiser sets, but not to another distance or shirt size, and runners who start more than 15 minutes late are not allowed to race [9]. Start times and the 2026 course map had not been published on the site when this was written.
Nobody from this site ran the race. This review draws on the results, airport weather records, the organiser's own pages and Vietnamese and English press reports.