How to Track and Watch the 2026 Athens Marathon: App, Start Times, the Climb and the Panathenaic Stadium Finish

The 43rd Athens Authentic Marathon starts in the town of Marathon at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 8, and the last block leaves at 10:09. All finishes are due at the Panathenaic Stadium by 6:15 p.m. The marathon sold out its 25,000 places in less than 36 hours. The start list shows 24,183 names as of November 2, and the organizer expects 85,000 participants across the weekend's races, a first for the event.

All times below are Athens time. Athens is seven hours ahead of U.S. Eastern that day, so the gun goes at 1:30 a.m. in New York.

Track runners in the official app

Tracking runs through the Athens Authentic Marathon app, free on iPhone (iOS 16 or newer) and Android (version 10 or later). Spectators don't need a login. Open the app, find your runner and add them as a favorite. The app page allows 20 favorites and the organizer's November 2 post says 25.

Accuracy depends on a choice the runner makes. A runner who logs in to "My Race" with their bib number and email turns on Live Tracking, which uses GPS to show their actual position on the course. Without it you can still follow them, but their position comes from split times at the checkpoints. The organizer says it will email instructions to every runner, so ask yours before Sunday whether they plan to activate it.

Timing zones sit every 5K and at 21.1K, so a runner without GPS tracking sends fresh data only at those points. The app also has a live leaderboard with results and splits for the leading men and women.

Start times

Marathon blocks, all a.m., from the race page. The same page still calls these times indicative, and they match the organizer's published schedule. Your runner's block comes with their bib, and anyone can look it up on the start list by surname.

The start is in Marathon town, and the last runner should cross the line at about 10:15. The time limit is eight hours, with all finishes due by 6:15 p.m. Racing and manual wheelchairs aren't allowed in the race.

The 8:30 start is earlier than in previous years, and blocks 11 to 15 form a second wave of runners. The week program puts the first man at the stadium between 10:39 and 10:42 and the first woman between 11:08 and 11:13. Medal ceremonies for the marathon run from 11:30 a.m. to noon.

The other races all finish in the Panathenaic Stadium:

The Marathon Flame ceremony is on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at the Marathon Tomb, with free entry for spectators.

The course

The race page's route description is unusually specific. The first 4 kilometers run slightly downhill on Marathonos Avenue, then the course spends 2.2 kilometers on Marathonomachon Street looping around the Tomb, the memorial to the fallen of the Battle of Marathon. Kilometers 6 to 10 through Nea Makri are flat.

Then it climbs. Kilometers 11 to 17 are uphill in parts, followed by a steep descent almost to the Rafina junction. From that junction the uphill is at its most intense up to kilometer 20. Through Pikermi the road alternates until a long climb at kilometer 25, and Pallini is uphill at 27 and 28. From Gerakas comes what the organizer calls the last and most difficult part, the Stavros junction at kilometers 30 and 31.

The organizer's GPX file shows the size of it. By our reading of that file, the course sits about 8 meters above sea level near kilometer 8 and tops out about 247 meters near kilometer 31, then drops about 150 meters to the finish.

After Stavros, a steep descent reaches Agia Paraskevi square, and Mesogeion Avenue carries runners through Chalandri and Cholargos. The organizer's "most characteristic" downhill runs from the Ministry of National Defence to the Katechaki junction, under the bridge at 37.5K. The route then takes Michalakopoulou and Feidippidou to Vasilissis Sofias at kilometer 39, past the American Embassy and the Athens Concert Hall to Eleftherias Park at 40K, the last rest station. Past Evangelismos Hospital and the War Museum, runners turn left onto Irodou Attikou at 41.2K, go by the Presidential Palace and the National Garden, and enter the stadium at the Discobolus statue for the last 170 meters on the track.

That track is new. Works by the Hellenic Olympic Committee have replaced a surface that had cracked and no longer met World Athletics standards. It's now blue with ecru inner areas, for the colors of the Greek flag. The marble is getting its first systematic cleaning in about 120 years, and the organizer expects that to cover the whole venue by the end of 2026, so the cleaning will still be underway on Sunday.

Where to watch

The organizer doesn't publish a list of viewing spots. The rules are short: stay out of the runners' lanes, and travel by metro or by buses outside the course, as shown on what the race page calls special maps. The closest thing on the site is the route map on the race page, which marks metro stations along the course from Pallini in to Syntagma and Akropoli, so the table below comes from that map, the route description and the stops named for the runner buses.

Two-spot plan for one runner: Katechaki at 37.5K, then Line 3 toward Syntagma for the stadium. Your runner has 4.7 kilometers left at Katechaki, about 28 minutes at six-minute pace, so leave as soon as they pass. The finish-area map marks spectator crossings around the stadium, but the organizer lists none along the rest of the course, so check which side of the road you need before you settle.

For a runner at the back, the race page's cutoffs tell you the latest they can be anywhere: 2:14 p.m. at 21.1K, 3:54 p.m. at 30K, 5:22 p.m. at 37.5K, 5:49 p.m. at 40K.

The finish

Entry to the stadium is free. Friends and family belong in the stands, and the track is for finishers and accredited staff only. Bicycles and skateboards aren't allowed in.

The finish-area map on the race page marks an "Athletes' and Group Meeting Point" in the stands, on the straight opposite the press and VIP seats, so agree on that spot beforehand. Runners get their medal, leave by a ramp to the stadium forecourt for water and food, and collect bags on Vassilisis Olgas Avenue, on the lower side of the Zappeion. Finishers can return to the stands afterward, or you can meet near the bag area. There's no bag service at the start, so your runner will be heading there anyway.

Road closures and transport

The organizer says no vehicles are allowed in the city center or around the stadium on Saturday from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 5:00 a.m. to 6:20 p.m., and it strongly recommends the metro.

Out on the course, the race page has a traffic ban on Marathonos Avenue in both directions from 7:00 a.m., and the schedule has rolling closures on both carriageways from 7:30. Plan around the earlier time. Police reopen the route gradually behind the last runners. As of November 2, neither the organizer nor SEGAS has published a street-by-street closure list or Sunday metro hours.

If you're thinking of going to the start, the organizer's buses are for runners only: blocks 1 to 10 board in central Athens from 5:00. The race page says the last bus leaves at 6:15, while the FAQ says 6:30 except at Syngrou-Fix, where it's 6:15, so treat 6:15 as the deadline. Blocks 11 to 15 board from 6:30 to 7:30 at Ethniki Amyna, Katechaki and Nomismatokopio, the first time runners have been moved to the start in separate groups. Runners who drive themselves have to be there by 7:30, and the drop-off parking is about an 800-meter walk from the start.

Watching on TV

ERT broadcasts the race live and holds exclusive TV rights, according to SEGAS. The organizer and SEGAS don't list a channel, a start time or a livestream, including for viewers outside Greece, so check ERT's schedule this week.

Who's racing up front

Elites return after a suspension that began in 2019, broken only by a single year in 2023. The organizer says 20 are expected, 10 men under 2:10 and 10 women under 2:30, chasing US$15,000 for the win with prize money through eighth place. Their names aren't on the site as of November 2. The November 4 press conference is scheduled with last year's winners, Panagiotis Karaiskos and Stamatia Noula, and the race also doubles as the Greek national championship.

The numbers to watch are Edwin Kiprop's 2:10:34 from 2023, both the men's race and course record, Mizuki Noguchi's women's course record of 2:26:20 from the 2004 Olympics, and Rasa Drazdauskaitė's women's race record of 2:33:51 from 2010. The organizer's estimate for the first man, 10:39 to 10:42, works out to 2:09 to 2:12 from the 8:30 gun. For everyone else, official finish times now count toward the Abbott World Marathon Majors Age Group World Rankings.

Results

The race page promises continuous results information on the event website during the race. Times for all participants go up as unofficial results after the races, and official results follow once any objections are resolved. We'll have winners and links on our Athens Marathon results page on Sunday.