Mitteldeutscher Marathon

The Mitteldeutscher Marathon is a point-to-point road race run between Leipzig and Halle (Saale) across the German states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. The 2026 edition, held on October 4, is the 23rd running of the event, which traces its roots to September 6, 1925, when Germany's first marathon championship ran this same Halle-to-Leipzig corridor; the modern race was revived in 2002 by two-time Olympic marathon champion Waldemar Cierpinski, originally to support Leipzig's bid for the 2012 Olympics. Since 2016 the marathon has run in the Leipzig-to-Halle direction, starting at the Elsterflutbecken near Leipzig's Sportforum and following flat riverside trails along the Neue Luppe and Weiße Elster before finishing on Halle's historic Marktplatz. Organizers bill the course as fast and largely flat, making it one of the region's better options for a personal best. Runners start at 9:00 AM with a 2:30 PM course cutoff (5.5 hours), passing 13 aid stations along the way. The race weekend also includes a half marathon (the Händellauf), a 10K run and 10K walk, a shorter 5K (Salzwirkerlauf), a children's fun run, and relay options, all starting and finishing in Halle. The 2025 edition doubled as a centennial celebration of the 1925 origin race and drew roughly 1,600 finishers across all distances.