New record: 23,000 Marathon entries sold in just 23 hours

Two years ago, Copenhagen Marathon sold out for the first time ever – after about six months. Last year, it took 12 weeks.

This year, 13,000 people were in the waiting queue when registration opened at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, and now – just 23 hours later – all entries are completely gone.

“After this year’s successful event, we were prepared for high interest in Copenhagen Marathon, but we’re still surprised at how fast it sold out,” says Lars Nissen, Head of Events at Sparta Athletics & Running. He offers his take on the overwhelming demand:

“We invest a lot of time and money into the event, which of course helps make it attractive to runners. But there’s no doubt that hosting a race in a fantastic city – a destination in itself – gives us a huge advantage. And we owe a big thank you to the residents of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg who navigate road closures and choose to join the festive running event in the streets creating the atmosphere that means so much to the runners.”

High evaluation score from the runners

The impressive registration rush follows a successful race just two and a half weeks ago, where participants gave record-high scores in post-race evaluations.

Around 7,000 runners from this year’s marathon completed the post-race survey, rating their overall experience an impressive 9 out of 10. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is also high – 78 among Danish runners and 82 among international participants.

“We’re pleased to see that runners are very satisfied with their Copenhagen Marathon experience. We’ve been organizing this event for over 40 years, and it has gone through an incredible transformation that we’re proud of,” says Lars Nissen.

“We are now ready to raise the bar even higher. We’re fully aware of where improvements are still needed – both from runners’ comments in the survey and from our internal review.”

Next year’s edition of the Copenhagen Marathon will take place on Sunday, May 10.

Number of Registered Runners (approx.):

• 2026: 23,000
• 2025: 21,000
• 2024: 16,000
• 2023: 12,000
• 2022: 11,000
• 2019: 13,000
• 2018: 9,000
• 2017: 10,000

Copenhagen Marathon was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19.

Facts about the Copenhagen Marathon

• Copenhagen Marathon will take place on May 10, 2026
• The first edition was held in 1980
• Organized by Sparta Athletics & Running
• More info: https://copenhagenmarathon.dk/en/
  
  

Facts about Sparta Athletics & Running

Sparta Athletics & Running is a nonprofit sports association with over 2,500 members and more than 250,000 annual event participants. Profits from major events are used to provide the best possible conditions for children, youth, and elite athletes in athletics and running, and to develop and optimize the event sector.

Each year, Sparta also distributes approximately DKK 3 million to sports clubs that contribute with volunteer efforts at Sparta’s major events.