Road race «VnExpress Marathon Quy Nhơn 2026»

   The sea stays on one side of you for most of the way and the field sets off in the dark, before sunrise and before the heat arrives. Runners rate the Quy Nhon course among the finest coastal routes in Vietnam, and if you have been meaning to try a seaside race in central Vietnam, this is the one that pulls you along.

   Last season 12,000 runners signed up here — a record for the race: the first edition drew four thousand, and more than 50,000 finishers have come through the city across six seasons. 2026 brings the seventh edition: Quy Nhon is where the VnExpress Marathon series began back in 2019, and it is still the oldest leg in the system. Three distances are on offer — 5 km, 10 km and 21 km — with the half marathon the longest this year.

   Start and finish are traditionally set in front of Nguyen Tat Thanh square in the city centre. The course runs out along An Duong Vuong and the Xuan Dieu seafront, so sunrise catches you on the promenade. Thi Nai bridge over the lagoon, the picture the race is known for, belonged to the marathon route — none of the 5, 10 or 21 km courses go onto it. Last year the roads were closed to traffic end to end, and the provincial health department put 20 doctors and 40 nurses on duty across twenty medical posts along the course, at the start and at the finish.

   Minimum ages differ by distance: 16 for the half, 12 for the 10 km, 4 for the 5 km — which makes this an unusually easy race to enter as a family. One thing to note if you ran it before: earlier editions were held in early summer, when sun and wind were a challenge in themselves, and 2026 moves the race to September. The full marathon is on hold this time: the organisers dropped the 42 km to put their resources into the three shorter distances. Quy Nhon sits on the coast between Da Nang and Nha Trang, a stretch most visitors drive straight past.

   What you pay depends on the distance and on how early you commit. The cheapest early stage closed on 14 August; the current rate runs to 25 August, and the last and dearest one is open from 26 August to 3 September. Fees by stage (early → current → last):

• — 5 km: 389,000 → 650,000 → 800,000 VND
• — 10 km: 499,000 → 800,000 → 1,050,000 VND
• — 21 km: 699,000 → 990,000 → 1,350,000 VND

   Groups pay less, with the discount applied per transaction: 5% from 20 runners, 10% from 51, 15% from 101, 20% from 501 and 25% from 1,001. The entry brings you the new white-and-turquoise race shirt — a T-shirt on 5 km and 10 km, with a singlet option on the half — while the medal showing the Tran Hung Dao statue above the bay is handed over at the finish line, each distance with its own ribbon colour. Half-marathon finishers are promised a separate finisher tee as well, though its design has not been unveiled yet.

   Two things catch first-timers out. Bib numbers are not sent out in advance — you get yours only when you collect your race kit in person. And the liability waiver has to be signed straight after you register; without it the bib may not be handed over at all.

   Organiser queries go to [email protected]; sign up through iRace. Sunrise over the sea along the seafront is the part people talk about afterwards.