2026 Warsaw Marathon - Sep 27 Countdown

Q: Can I still enter the Warsaw Marathon 2026?

Yes. Entry is first-come, first-served with no lottery, and the official registration system publishes a live count: on 29 July 2026 it showed 11,156 of 14,000 places taken, with 2,844 left — call it roughly 2,800 and falling steadily, with the official registration page carrying the live balance. Registration closes 26 September at 19:00 CEST, or earlier if the cap is reached. That 14,000 cap covers the marathon only (regulamin V.5) — the same-day 10K has its own separate 10,000-place limit. Worth knowing before you rush: there is no recent record of this race selling out. The 2025 edition was capped at 13,000 and its official starting list finished at 11,805, about 91% full, with entries open to the final week. What did sell out in 2025 was the 10K, not the marathon.

Q: What does the Warsaw Marathon cost, and when does the price go up?

The fee is a date ladder and a hard split by residence, not a choice of currency. Runners living outside Poland pay the euro table: 60 / 75 / 90 through 31 August / 105 from 1 to 14 September / 120 from 15 September. Polish citizens and residents pay 210 / 260 / 310 / 360 / 410 zł over the same windows. The mechanism that catches people out: your tier is set by when the payment clears, not when you submit the form — regulamin V.2 counts an entry complete only once the money is booked, and VII.6 makes a late payer top up the difference. Discounts are 25% for runners born 27 September 1961 or earlier, 50% for wheelchair entrants who send in a disability certificate, and free entry for anyone born 27 September 1946 or earlier. Read the 50% line narrowly: regulamin V.12 admits direct-drive racing wheelchairs and explicitly refuses hand-bikes and rim-push chairs. There are no group entries and no group discount. One caution: the organiser's English pages still carry 2025 values — a 13 EUR cancellation option that is now 10 EUR, a September 2025 entry deadline, and a senior-discount cut-off given as 28 September 1960, which is the 2025 figure rather than the 27 September 1961 above — so use the Polish info page or the regulamin PDF for anything load-bearing. For context on how this compares, see our marathon entry fee study.

Q: Where does the Warsaw Marathon course go?

The 2026 route went up on 5 August 2026, with a GPX file and a PDF map on the organiser's route page. It is one loop, not laps. From Świętokrzyska Street under the Palace of Culture and Science it drops down Nowy Świat past the Palma and the National Museum, turns east onto Aleje Jerozolimskie and crosses the Vistula on the Poniatowski Bridge just before km 3. The Praga-Południe leg runs out to a turnaround at Rondo Wiatraczna just before km 6 and comes back along Grochowska, passing PGE Narodowy and Park Skaryszewski around km 11, then heads north up the river embankment past the zoo. You cross back on the Gdański Bridge at about km 16.5, and halfway falls on Jana Ostroroga in Wola.The middle third — roughly km 22 to 33, through Wola, Bemowo and Bielany — is residential outer Warsaw, and it is where the sightseeing stops. The run home comes through Żoliborz and Plac Wilsona, past the Royal Castle and Sigismund's Column soon after km 40 and down Krakowskie Przedmieście at km 41, then back onto Świętokrzyska for the line. Apart from that opening and closing 0.75 km of Świętokrzyska and a few short turnarounds on wide avenues, you never cover the same ground twice. Kilometre positions here are read off the official GPX and cross-checked against the markers printed on the official PDF map; the organiser gives the landmarks but not the kilometres. Two things it has still not released: the promised on-board video of the route kilometre by kilometre, and the 2026 road-closure graphic.

Q: Is the Warsaw Marathon flat, and what is the elevation gain?

Flat, and now with an official figure behind it: 83 m of total elevation gain over 42.195 km, with start and finish both at 113 m above sea level — about 2 m of climb per kilometre. Flat is not the same as featureless, though, and the distribution is what actually costs time.The first kilometres run downhill from 113 m to roughly 85 m at the Vistula, which is exactly where most runners go out too fast. There is one genuine hill: a 500 m climb at around km 16, which the organiser calls the only significant accent in the whole profile — on the GPX and the official map it lines up with the ramp off the river embankment onto the Gdański Bridge. Then the climbing returns at the worst possible moment: a viaduct at km 38 (98 to 105 m), a rise from 102 to 106 m between km 38.9 and 39.5, and 106 to 111 m from km 40 to 41, with the finish line itself at 113 m. Net elevation for the day is zero, so every metre of that early descent gets repaid — most of it inside the last four kilometres.One practical warning if you plan to preview the route: the official GPX carries no elevation data at all, latitude and longitude only. Load it into a watch or Strava and you get a flat line, and any gain figure a third-party site shows for this course is that site's own terrain-model estimate rather than the organiser's number. Sketch the first half honestly with our negative split planner.

Q: What is the time limit, and when does the course close?

6 hours 30 minutes from the gun, with intermediate cutoffs at 3:15 at halfway, 4:45 at 30 km, 5:30 at 35 km and 6:15 at 40 km — about 9:15 per kilometre to stay clear of all four. Hand-propelled wheelchair entrants start at 08:50, ten minutes before the 09:00 gun, and the start line itself closes roughly ten minutes after the gun. The official programme puts course closure at about 15:30. The street-by-street traffic graphic is still pending; the organiser currently directs drivers to live Waze updates. Build the splits you actually need with our pace calculator.

Q: Which deadlines matter besides the price change?

16 August was the last day to edit the predicted finish time your start-zone colour is based on, and regulamin II.6 states that entries paid after it are not guaranteed a zone matching that prediction. The same date closed the charity route. Next, 9 September is the last day to order bib delivery, which ships to addresses in Poland only. Overseas runners collect at the Race Office and Running & Lifestyle EXPO in the Palace of Culture and Science, Plac Defilad 1, using the Marszałkowska Street entrance. The current programme lists Friday 25 September, 14:00–20:00, and Saturday 26 September, 10:00–20:00, but marks programme times as subject to change. The office is shut on race day. Someone else can collect for you with your QR code plus a photo or copy of your ID. Registration itself closes 26 September at 19:00.

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Race Information

Race	2026 Warsaw Marathon - Sep 27
City	Warsaw
Date	2026-09-27 at 09:00
Field Size	~9,529 runners
Time Limit	6 hours 30 min
Cutoff pace	9:15/km
Course speed	Typical pace Speed index 0.97 — median of the last 5 winners' times against the global same-year median. Winner times track elite fields and prize money, so this reads the course as a proxy, not a pure measurement.
Timezone	Europe/Warsaw
Official Site	Fundacja Maraton Warszawski (Warsaw Marathon Foundation)

Race Day Weather

Average Temperature	12.7°C / 55°F
Humidity	75%
Peak Wind	20.4 km/h
Rain Chance	30%
Typical Conditions	Cool early-autumn city weather. Over the 20 years to 2024, the median day in the race-week window ran a daily mean of 12.6°C, with 8.7°C across the coolest tenth of days and 17.1°C across the warmest; humidity sits near 75% and wind near 20 km/h. These are daily means, not 9:00 a.m. readings, so the air at the gun is normally colder.

What to Prepare: Dress for a start colder than the daily average: the coolest tenth of days in this window average 8.7°C, and the median dew point is 8.1°C. A throwaway long-sleeve over the singlet, shed by 5 km, covers it. Rain is not the default — about 30% of days in the window are wet, with a median of 0.1 mm — but wind is the underrated variable here, at a 20 km/h median and 31 km/h in the windiest tenth. Sanity-check your kit with what to wear.

Based on historical averages for race week. Use our Weather Score Calculator and What to Wear Guide for personalized advice.

Wind Impact on Race Day

Winds peaking around 20.4 km/h — the typical daily maximum for this date — can affect your pace by 5-15 seconds per kilometer in exposed stretches. Headwinds slow you down exponentially: a 20 km/h wind costs more than twice a 10 km/h wind.

Calculate your wind-adjusted pace →

Race-Week Climate

Based on 20 years of race-week weather (2005-2024), MERRA-2 reanalysis

	Cooler	Typical	Warmer
Temperature	8.7°C	12.6°C	17.1°C
Dew point	3.8°C	8.1°C	12.2°C

Wet-day chance: 30% Runnability: 75/100

Data: NASA POWER (MERRA-2 reanalysis), NASA Langley Research Center

Course Profile

Course Type	Loop — start and finish on the same stretch of Świętokrzyska Street at the foot of the Palace of Culture and Science, 2.3 m apart in the official GPX. The route crosses the Vistula twice: out over the Poniatowski Bridge just before km 3, back over the Gdański Bridge around km 16.5.
Elevation Gain	83m
Terrain	Closed asphalt city streets, marked every kilometre, with traffic shut out of the whole route. The line runs down Nowy Świat past the Palma and the National Museum, over the Poniatowski Bridge into Praga-Południe for a turn at Rondo Wiatraczna just before km 6, back past PGE Narodowy and Park Skaryszewski, north up the Praga embankment past the zoo, over the Gdański Bridge, then out through Wola, Bemowo and Bielany before returning via Żoliborz, the Old Town and Krakowskie Przedmieście. Worth knowing if someone is coming to watch: everything on the organiser's highlights list — the Palma, the National Museum, both bridges, PGE Narodowy, the zoo, the Royal Route — falls inside the first 17 km or the last 5. What sits between them, roughly km 22 to 33 through Wola, Bemowo and Bielany, is residential outer Warsaw.
Profile	The organiser published the 2026 route on 5 August 2026, with numbers attached: 83 m of total elevation gain across 42.195 km, start and finish both at 113 m above sea level. That is under 2 m of climb per kilometre — less than one flight of stairs. The distribution matters more than the total. The opening kilometres fall from 113 m to about 85 m at the river, so early speed here is borrowed, not free. There is one real hill: a 500 m climb at around km 16, which the organiser calls the only significant accent in the entire profile. The rest of the climbing is stacked into the finish — a viaduct at km 38 (98 to 105 m), a rise from 102 to 106 m between km 38.9 and 39.5, and 106 to 111 m from km 40 to 41, then flat to the 113 m line. The course is measured and certified by the Polish Athletic Association (PZLA) and World Athletics.
Boston Qualifier	Yes — Check your BQ time

Prepare for 2026 Warsaw Marathon - Sep 27

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I still enter the Warsaw Marathon 2026?

Yes. Entry is first-come, first-served with no lottery, and the official registration system publishes a live count: on 29 July 2026 it showed 11,156 of 14,000 places taken, with 2,844 left — call it roughly 2,800 and falling steadily, with the official registration page carrying the live balance. Registration closes 26 September at 19:00 CEST, or earlier if the cap is reached. That 14,000 cap covers the marathon only (regulamin V.5) — the same-day 10K has its own separate 10,000-place limit. Worth knowing before you rush: there is no recent record of this race selling out. The 2025 edition was capped at 13,000 and its official starting list finished at 11,805, about 91% full, with entries open to the final week. What did sell out in 2025 was the 10K, not the marathon.

What does the Warsaw Marathon cost, and when does the price go up?

The fee is a date ladder and a hard split by residence, not a choice of currency. Runners living outside Poland pay the euro table: 60 / 75 / 90 through 31 August / 105 from 1 to 14 September / 120 from 15 September. Polish citizens and residents pay 210 / 260 / 310 / 360 / 410 zł over the same windows. The mechanism that catches people out: your tier is set by when the payment clears, not when you submit the form — regulamin V.2 counts an entry complete only once the money is booked, and VII.6 makes a late payer top up the difference. Discounts are 25% for runners born 27 September 1961 or earlier, 50% for wheelchair entrants who send in a disability certificate, and free entry for anyone born 27 September 1946 or earlier. Read the 50% line narrowly: regulamin V.12 admits direct-drive racing wheelchairs and explicitly refuses hand-bikes and rim-push chairs. There are no group entries and no group discount. One caution: the organiser's English pages still carry 2025 values — a 13 EUR cancellation option that is now 10 EUR, a September 2025 entry deadline, and a senior-discount cut-off given as 28 September 1960, which is the 2025 figure rather than the 27 September 1961 above — so use the Polish info page or the regulamin PDF for anything load-bearing. For context on how this compares, see our marathon entry fee study.

Where does the Warsaw Marathon course go?

The 2026 route went up on 5 August 2026, with a GPX file and a PDF map on the organiser's route page. It is one loop, not laps. From Świętokrzyska Street under the Palace of Culture and Science it drops down Nowy Świat past the Palma and the National Museum, turns east onto Aleje Jerozolimskie and crosses the Vistula on the Poniatowski Bridge just before km 3. The Praga-Południe leg runs out to a turnaround at Rondo Wiatraczna just before km 6 and comes back along Grochowska, passing PGE Narodowy and Park Skaryszewski around km 11, then heads north up the river embankment past the zoo. You cross back on the Gdański Bridge at about km 16.5, and halfway falls on Jana Ostroroga in Wola.

The middle third — roughly km 22 to 33, through Wola, Bemowo and Bielany — is residential outer Warsaw, and it is where the sightseeing stops. The run home comes through Żoliborz and Plac Wilsona, past the Royal Castle and Sigismund's Column soon after km 40 and down Krakowskie Przedmieście at km 41, then back onto Świętokrzyska for the line. Apart from that opening and closing 0.75 km of Świętokrzyska and a few short turnarounds on wide avenues, you never cover the same ground twice. Kilometre positions here are read off the official GPX and cross-checked against the markers printed on the official PDF map; the organiser gives the landmarks but not the kilometres. Two things it has still not released: the promised on-board video of the route kilometre by kilometre, and the 2026 road-closure graphic.

Is the Warsaw Marathon flat, and what is the elevation gain?

Flat, and now with an official figure behind it: 83 m of total elevation gain over 42.195 km, with start and finish both at 113 m above sea level — about 2 m of climb per kilometre. Flat is not the same as featureless, though, and the distribution is what actually costs time.

The first kilometres run downhill from 113 m to roughly 85 m at the Vistula, which is exactly where most runners go out too fast. There is one genuine hill: a 500 m climb at around km 16, which the organiser calls the only significant accent in the whole profile — on the GPX and the official map it lines up with the ramp off the river embankment onto the Gdański Bridge. Then the climbing returns at the worst possible moment: a viaduct at km 38 (98 to 105 m), a rise from 102 to 106 m between km 38.9 and 39.5, and 106 to 111 m from km 40 to 41, with the finish line itself at 113 m. Net elevation for the day is zero, so every metre of that early descent gets repaid — most of it inside the last four kilometres.

One practical warning if you plan to preview the route: the official GPX carries no elevation data at all, latitude and longitude only. Load it into a watch or Strava and you get a flat line, and any gain figure a third-party site shows for this course is that site's own terrain-model estimate rather than the organiser's number. Sketch the first half honestly with our negative split planner.

Does a Warsaw Marathon time count for Boston?

Yes. The course holds measurement certification from both the Polish Athletic Association (PZLA) and World Athletics, and the regulamin binds the race to their rules, so a finish here is a valid qualifying result. Warsaw asks for no qualifying time of its own to enter. Two things worth keeping apart: that certification describes how the course was measured, and it is not the same thing as a label. For 2026 the race also sits on the World Athletics label list with an Elite Label — a distinction the event's own site never claims for itself. Check what you need with the Boston qualifying calculator.

What is the time limit, and when does the course close?

6 hours 30 minutes from the gun, with intermediate cutoffs at 3:15 at halfway, 4:45 at 30 km, 5:30 at 35 km and 6:15 at 40 km — about 9:15 per kilometre to stay clear of all four. Hand-propelled wheelchair entrants start at 08:50, ten minutes before the 09:00 gun, and the start line itself closes roughly ten minutes after the gun. The official programme puts course closure at about 15:30. The street-by-street traffic graphic is still pending; the organiser currently directs drivers to live Waze updates. Build the splits you actually need with our pace calculator.

Which deadlines matter besides the price change?

16 August was the last day to edit the predicted finish time your start-zone colour is based on, and regulamin II.6 states that entries paid after it are not guaranteed a zone matching that prediction. The same date closed the charity route. Next, 9 September is the last day to order bib delivery, which ships to addresses in Poland only. Overseas runners collect at the Race Office and Running & Lifestyle EXPO in the Palace of Culture and Science, Plac Defilad 1, using the Marszałkowska Street entrance. The current programme lists Friday 25 September, 14:00–20:00, and Saturday 26 September, 10:00–20:00, but marks programme times as subject to change. The office is shut on race day. Someone else can collect for you with your QR code plus a photo or copy of your ID. Registration itself closes 26 September at 19:00.

How big is the Warsaw Marathon, and who won the last edition?

It is the biggest marathon in Poland. The 2025 (47th) edition took more than 11,500 entries and produced 9,529 finishers, reported as the largest marathon field in Polish athletics history, and it doubled as the Polish national championships for the first time. The organiser's weekend-in-numbers list counts close to 5,000 first-time marathoners among those 11,500-plus entries, and does not say how many of them finished — either way it tells you a lot about the field you will be standing in. The winners were Ryoma Takeuchi (JPN) in 2:11:21 and Michelle Schaub (SUI) in 2:33:41. For 2026 the cap rose to 14,000, but that is a registration ceiling, not a turnout forecast.