Road race «Sầm Sơn Marathon 2026»

   A late-September morning on the Thanh Hóa coast, once the holiday crowds have gone and the seafront road belongs to runners again. This is a full-scale marathon staged by the provincial culture authority, and its most unusual feature is the entry fee.

   The organiser is the Thanh Hóa Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, working with the Thanh Hóa Runners club. The race supports the national fitness campaign and doubles as a low-season promotion for Sầm Sơn beach tourism.

   The fee table explains itself — the organisers absorb most of the real BIB cost:

• — 3 km — list price 399,000 ₫, subsidy 263,000 ₫
• — 5 km — list price 649,000 ₫, subsidy 513,000 ₫
• — 10 km — list price 769,000 ₫, subsidy 633,000 ₫
• — 21 km — list price 909,000 ₫, subsidy 773,000 ₫
• — 42 km — list price 1,029,000 ₫, subsidy 893,000 ₫

   Whatever you enter, you pay 136,000 ₫ — the full marathon included. If you have been putting off your first long distance because of the price, this is about as gentle an entry point as Vietnam offers.

   It is built for club runners, students and workers from the province and beyond, and the five-distance ladder means a whole family can sign up without anyone being left out. Finish early and you still have the whole morning for the sea.

   Start times by distance are still being finalised; the race opens in the pre-dawn cool, as coastal marathons here normally do.

   Sầm Sơn in late September is quiet and still warm enough to swim — a rare combination for a beach marathon.