Vienna City (Half) Marathon 2025

Last year this race happened on the same day as the Nice half marathon, so I had to pick one or the other. So this year it was Vienna's turn. We came out on the Nightjet (direct from Amsterdam) and took the following week off for a vacation through Italy. That partially explains why I'm sharing this post 2 weeks after the event. The rest of the explanation is that I was sick with a cold this week.

In this post I'm focusing on the race, sharing how it went and a bit of media from the run.

Pre-Race

We departed Amsterdam on Friday night, meaning we got to Vienna in the morning. We left our bags at the hotel and went out of the convention center. Public transit in Vienna is seamless, so if you visit the first thing I'd recommend is to buy day tickets!

Race

Reaching the start line is very simple; it's directly outside an exit of a U-bahn station. Which one? Obviously the one where a thousand runners get off the train! Because no one else is riding the metro on a Sunday morning.

Since we had another week of traveling following the race, I didn't bring my carbon shoes. I told myself I'd take it easier, but it's too easy to get swept up in the big race atmosphere and adrenaline. Plus, they started me in the "Super Fast Runners" section right at the front (no idea how I ended up there), so the end result was that I didn't run my fastest time, but I wasn't going that slowly either.

The weather was perfect, although I outfitted myself with one too many layers, and the mostly-flat route was excellent. It starts off with a panoramic view of the Danube river as we soar across the Reichsbrücke. Then it takes a turn through the Prater Hauptallee park, including the long and straight road exactly where Kipchoge broke the two hour marathon record back in 2019. The place is a running Mecca.

The race continues through the city with a section on the famous Ring street, which is lined with all the biggest castles, the fanciest hotels, and the most historic museums. We head out on a steady uphill to Schönbrunn before turning around back to the city with a descent down the Mariahilf shopping street. My only small disappointment along the way was the lack of any direct view of Schönbrunn Palace. The route passes close to it but I think the castle itself is still offset by a massive garden and obscured by trees and a fence.

Post-Race

We chose a hotel fairly close to the finish line of the race, so it was a quick walk from the end back to our room. I did not bring my phone, therefore I practiced a bit of offline route finding. Or I just asked someone for directions and they walked me most of the way back.

On account of the knee injury I had spent the last two months recovering from, my legs weren't as well-prepared for the distance as they were last year. What I mean to say is that my calves were demolished after the race. However, I learned my lesson from last year. We gave ourselves the entire Sunday in Vienna and booked our hotel through to Monday morning. I spent these two days recovering in a seated position.

We enjoyed quite a bit of time relaxing in the old-fashioned Vienna coffee houses. You can think of them like American diners, but ten times classier. They also serve comfort food (schnitzels), and they're comfortable to sit in for hours (plenty of people bring in their newspapers), but the waiters wear tuxedos and the coffee house culture is protected on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Later on we took it easy on the tram, listening to Rick Steve's audio guide to the ring street tram line.

Rest of the trip

As I shared in the introduction, this event was just the beginning of a week-long trip through Italy. We visited several places, but for me the highlight was hiking between the 5 villages of Cinque Terre. Going up and down the mountains treated my eyes to the incredible spectacle of colorful towns perched on cliffs against the deep blue backdrop of the Mediterranean. My legs shrieked in pain every step (there are a lot of stairs) but I can't complain!