Budapest Marathon

Like many sports, running in Hungary was limited to professional athletes only. With the growing popularity of marathons in other countries, in 1984 BSI decided to hold a "marathon for everyone", where amateur runners could participate too. The event would be held in spring. A half marathon and a shorter race for school children was also held alongside the event. This would continue until 1996, when the Budapest Half Marathon became an independent race.

The first edition of the marathon consisted of two loops, 21 km each. 625 men and 25 women from 18 countries reached the finish line. The results of the race can still be found on the marathon's official website. The official sponsor of the event was the IBUSZ travel agency, which remained for the next ten years.

In 1986 the Budapest Marathon became an AIMS member, the first one in Eastern Europe. The prize for winning the race was a trip to New York to participate in the New York City Marathon, provided the winner finishes under 2:18 (man) or 2:40 (woman).

In 1987, with full AIMS membership, the race attracted more international participants and the number of runners passed 1000. This was also the first time that every finisher received a medal.

In 1993 the official sponsor was changed to Mars. Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York City Marathon and of Hungarian origin was the guest star of the event (he ran a half marathon).

The marathon was not held in 1994 and 1995 due to financial difficulties. In 1996, the marathon event was moved to autumn, while the half marathon remained in spring. The sponsor was changed to Kaiser's-Plus.

In 2009 Spar bought Plus, which meant the marathon's name was also changed to "Spar Budapest Marathon", which it remains. This year saw over 13,000 participants, with 2,388 running the full length. The number of people increased every year, so in 2016 there were over 28,000 participants, with 4,969 running the whole marathon.

In the early history of the race, it was known as the Csepeli Nemzetközi Maraton (Csepel International Marathon). It obtained its current name in 1984.

The Budapest Marathon is managed by BSI, led by Árpád Kocsis. BSI is an acronym for "Budapest Sport Bureau". The organization always needs to delicately position itself to produce profit, while at the same time keep politicians happy. Almost every marathon has either the mayor or a minister as the "main patron" of the event. Budapest has a loud group of people that don't want the race to be held in the city center (due to the road closures that inevitably occur), which forces BSI always to be close to the party currently in power.

The course of the marathon changes every year, but the main routes usually remain. The race center is situated at the Városliget (City Park). The race starts in Hősök tere (Heroes' Square), and due to the large number of participants a "zoned start" is implemented, where each subsequent zone starts a little bit later. It takes more than 15 minutes for the runners from the last zone to cross the starting line.

The marathon passes through two UNESCO World Heritage sites. It also crosses the Danube several times. There are many music performers along the route. While there are usually crowds along the route, there are several "crowd support points" where large groups of people cheer. These points are well organized (usually near metro stations) so that people can go from one point to another quickly and find their friend or family member that is running.

Each year, the organizer prepares a video (available on Youtube) where you can see the entire track in 5 compressed minutes.

After the race is over, competitors can bathe their aching feet in the Széchenyi thermal bath (usually for free thought this can change).

Key:   Course record   Hungarian championship race

Edition	Year	Men's winner	Time (h:m:s)	Women's winner	Time (h:m:s)
1st	1961	Sándor Molnár (HUN)	2:28:20.2	Not held
2nd	1962	József Sütő (HUN)	2:23:05.8
3rd	1963	Sándor Molnár (HUN)	2:28:21
4th	1964	Istvan Kun (HUN)	2:24:14
5th	1965	János Huszár (HUN)	2:19:55.8
6th	1966	Andor Bruder (HUN)	2:33:36
7th	1967	Denes Simon (HUN)	2:22:19
8th	1968	János Szerényi (HUN)	2:26:13.2
9th	1969	Gyula Tóth (HUN)	2:26:51
10th	1970	Nikola Simeonov (BUL)	2:21:56.2
11th	1971	Gyula Toth (HUN)	2:21:46
12th	1972	Ferenc Szekeres (HUN)	2:22:38	Sarolta Monspart (HUN)	2:59:53.2
13th	1973	Jozsef Babinyecz (HUN)	2:17:45	?	?
14th	1974	Martin Schröder (GER)	2:15:13	?	?
15th	1975	Jürgen Eberding (GER)	2:15:36	?	?
16th	1976	Ryszard Kopijasz (POL)	2:16:21	Sarolta Monspart (HUN)	2:48:22.2
17th	1977	Jerzy Finster (POL)	2:15:41	Sarolta Monspart (HUN)	2:48:59
18th	1978	Ferenc Szekeres (HUN)	2:16:38.8	Ágnes Sipka (HUN)	3:02:21
19th	1979	?	?	?	?
20th	1980	János Szekeres (HUN)	2:14:25	?	?
21st	1981	Zoltán Kiss (HUN)	2:18:52	Liane Winter (GER)	2:51:22
22nd	1982	Zoltán Kiss (HUN)	2:15:32	Antonia Ladanyi (HUN)	2:38:29
23rd	1983	Antoni Niemczak (POL)	2:14:15	Ágnes Sipka (HUN)	2:44:33
24th	1984	Zoltán Kőszegi (HUN)	2:14:32	Karolina Szabó (HUN)	2:33:43
25th	1985	Sándor Szendrei (HUN)	2:13:11	Ilona Zsilak (HUN)	2:37:44
26th	1986	Peter Antal (HUN)	2:14:48	Ágnes Sipka (HUN)	2:28:51
27th	1987	Stephan Freigang (GER)	2:14:37	Birgit Stephan (GER)	2:32:20
28th	1988	Attila Sulyok (HUN)	2:17:59	Andri Avraam (CYP)	2:41:50
29th	1989	Klaus Goldammer (GER)	2:20:58	Andri Avraam (CYP)	2:41:55
30th	1990	?	?	Anna Kamkalova (RUS)	2:52:05
—	Not held from 1991 to 1995
31st	1996	Endre Laczfi (HUN)	2:19:50	Erika Csomor (HUN)	2:56:29
32nd	1997	Martón Lajtos (HUN)	2:22:02	Éva Petrik (HUN)	2:46:50
33rd	1998	Gergely Rezessy (HUN)	2:15:38	Judit Nagy (HUN)	2:40:09
34th	1999	Gergely Rezessy (HUN)	2:19:31	Erika Csomor (HUN)	2:44:39
35th	2000	Mykola Rudyk (UKR)	2:19:32	Erika Csomor (HUN)	2:41:57
36th	2001	Tolosa Gebre (ETH)	2:18:45	Judit Nagy (HUN)	2:39:04
37th	2002	Gergely Rezessy (HUN)	2:18:41	Ida Kovács (HUN)	2:38:18
38th	2003	László Nagy (HUN)	2:24:39	Judit Nagy (HUN)	2:41:56
39th	2004	Jackton Odhiambo (KEN)	2:24:17	Simona Staicu (HUN)	2:38:17
40th	2005	Jackton Odhiambo (KEN)	2:22:03	Katalin Farkas (HUN)	2:49:31
41st	2006	Tamás Tóth (HUN)	2:25:03	Judit Nagy (HUN)	2:59:49
42nd	2007	Tamás Tóth (HUN)	2:24:40	Judit Nagy (HUN)	2:47:10
43rd	2008	Gergely Rezessy (HUN)	2:24:21	Judit Nagy (HUN)	2:45:32
44th	2009	Moses Chepkwony (KEN)	2:25:18	Andrea Szederkényi-Takács (HUN)	2:44:34
45th	2010	Ashenafi Erkolo (ETH)	2:23:14	Simona Staicu (HUN)	2:37:50
46th	2011	Elisha Sawe (KEN)	2:25:58	Judit Nagy (HUN)	2:54:47
47th	2012	Gábor Józsa (HUN)	2:21:06	Tímea Merényi (HUN)	2:49:30
48th	2013	Gábor Józsa (HUN)	2:22:58	Simona Staicu (HUN)	2:42:26
49th	2014	Tamás Nagy (HUN)	2:27:15	Simona Staicu (HUN)	2:51:08
50th	2015	Dániel Soós (HUN)	2:25:21	Tímea Merényi (HUN)	2:45:11
51st	2016	Gábor Józsa (HUN)	2:22:39	Simona Staicu (HUN)	2:50:30
52nd	2017	Gábor Józsa (HUN)	2:20:22	Tünde Szabó (HUN)	2:42:49
53rd	2018	Gáspár Csere (HUN)	2:20:10	Tünde Szabó (HUN)	2:47:41
54th	2019	Péter Jenkei (HUN)	2:23:21	Fanni Gyurkó (HUN)	2:42:54

List of winners

• Budapest Marathon. Association of Road Racing Statisticians (2011-10-03). Retrieved on 2011-10-16.
• History of the marathon from the organizer's website (in Hungarian)

• Official website