Record participation in Hamburg

Yet entries reached another record high: 20,767 runners had registered. This makes the hella hamburg half marathon Germany’s second-largest standalone half marathon.

Staging the event under these circumstances was a major undertaking: providing enough space for runners and spectators while keeping traffic congestion to a minimum. Compared with 2025, the start and finish areas had been significantly extended and enlarged, and an additional starting wave had been introduced. The storm warning also required some last-minute precautions in the finish area.

For the most part, however, the weather cooperated, allowing the biggest hella hamburg half marathon ever to go ahead as planned. Around an hour before the start, the south-westerly wind increasingly cleared the clouds, and shortly afterwards it almost felt warm. Hearts were certainly warmed by 9:00 a.m., when Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins (“On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight”) rang out. Fittingly, the start line is almost directly alongside the famous Davidwache police station.

After a slight delay, the course was cleared for the start at 9:36 a.m. Annette Kreidler, Head of Marketing at hella Mineralbrunnen, fired the starting gun. And they were off!

The elite runners led the way, with the prospect of two course records being broken. On paper, even the wind direction appeared favourable: for the first three kilometres, runners faced a diagonal headwind, although the buildings offered some shelter. After the turnaround point by the Elbe, they headed east for around six kilometres along the Landungsbrücken waterfront, benefiting from a partial tailwind.

The times to beat were 1:00:52 for the men and 1:10:05 for the women.

The women’s race looked fast from the outset. The leaders passed the 10-kilometre mark at a pace suggesting a finishing time of around 1:09:45. In the men’s race, however, it became clear earlier on that a course record would be difficult.

The eight-man leading group stayed tightly packed for a long time. On the Kennedy Bridge at kilometre 11, they ran in a 1–4–3 formation, led by Ethiopia’s Kefyalew Kifle Sileshi, though they were no longer on record pace.

At that stage, things still looked different in the women’s race. Half-marathon debutant Selly Simatinyang and last year’s winner Joan Chepleting, both from Kenya, ran together at the front in a group with six men. Simatinyang looked slightly fresher than Chepleting at this point. The next two women followed around 15 seconds behind.

While the leaders were already passing kilometre 11, the start of the main field on the Reeperbahn was only just getting into full swing. Even as the fastest runners reached kilometre 15, and later kilometre 20, participants were still crossing the start line.

The wind became more noticeable over the final kilometres, as many participants reported afterwards. Some found the uphill finishing straight into a headwind particularly tough; others had already struggled with the conditions earlier on.

Kathrin, who finished in 1:37, summed it up: “The last kilometre was the worst.” Later, at the awards ceremony, another comment was heard: “The last two kilometres were awful.”

By the time the lead bicycle turned onto the finishing straight, however, Hamburg was showing its sunny side. Spectators packed both sides of the course, cheering loudly, as the men’s race developed into a thrilling duel all the way to the finish line.

Ethiopia’s Kefyalew Kifle Sileshi won in 1:02:59, just one second ahead of Uruguay’s Cristhian Zamora. Sileshi crossed the line smiling, although the course record remained out of reach. Kenya’s James Kipkurui finished third in 1:03:08.

The fastest German was Tom-Leon Bens of LAC Paderborn, who finished tenth in 1:06:24.

And the women? At kilometre 15, the pace at the front eased slightly for the first time. The projected finishing time was now around 1:10:10—five seconds outside the existing course record. By kilometre 20, the leaders were around ten seconds behind record pace. Still ahead lay that final uphill kilometre, which many would later describe as the toughest part of the race.

Selly Simatinyang refused to be stopped. The Kenyan held on to her lead, extended her advantage and won comfortably in 1:10:12. She missed the course record by just seven seconds. On a day like this, the wind can probably take the blame for a few of those seconds.

Kenya’s Brenda Kiplagat finished second in 1:10:31, with Belgium’s Julie Voet just two seconds behind in third, clocking 1:10:33. Last year’s winner, Joan Chepleting, lost touch in the second half of the race and finished fourth in 1:11:10.

Meanwhile, participants were still crossing the start line on the Reeperbahn… For around another hour, plentiful sunshine accompanied finishers over their final metres. The weather was still at its friendliest for the awards ceremony at 1:00 p.m.

And in 2027? Perhaps the hella hamburg half marathon will even become Europe’s second-largest summer half marathon. The 33rd edition will take place on 27 June 2027. To reduce the risk of further problems caused by extreme heat, the race will start considerably earlier in the morning.