TCS Amsterdam Marathon 2026: Dates, Course and Splits

The TCS Amsterdam Marathon 2026 runs over the weekend of Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October, and the Olympic Stadium is where you start and finish, according to the official race site. When we checked that site on 14 September 2026, it listed both the full and the half marathon as sold out, so the organiser's ticket resale is now the main way in. The marathon itself starts on Sunday 18 October at 09:00. The course is flat. Hills won't decide your time, but three things you can plan will: your first 5 km, wind along the river, and the extra distance you run around corners.

2026 dates, tickets and what is still open

Race weekend: Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October 2026

The organiser lists the 2026 edition as a two-day event. According to the official program, Saturday 17 October has the shorter races, including the Samsung Galaxy 7.5K at 14:15. Sunday 18 October has the TCS Marathon at 09:00 with a 6-hour time limit, and the Mizuno Half Marathon at 13:20 with a 3-hour limit. Bib pick-up at the Marathon Expo runs from Thursday 15 to Saturday 17 October.

Before you book anything non-refundable, check the program page again for changes. If a third-party page shows a different date, go by the organiser's program, not by whichever search result happens to sit above it.

Sold out: resale, the 7.5K and travel packages

Status as shown on the official site on 14 September 2026:

The official registration page lists the 2026 entry fees as €145.00 for the marathon and €43.50 for the half marathon, but both distances are sold out. The ticket resale runs through Atleta until Wednesday 14 October 2026, either as a public resale or as a private sale that is still paid through the Atleta dashboard. A bib resold after 7 September keeps the original runner's start wave and start time, and a marathon ticket can also be used for the half. The organiser strongly advises against buying through platforms such as Ticketswap. Package prices are set by the travel partner and can change, so go by the figure on its page.

The course: flat and fast, with three parts that need a plan

Wikipedia dates the Amsterdam Marathon back to 1975, and the Dutch-language official site notes that the first edition had 300 runners. The organiser describes the race as a World Athletics Platinum Label road race with one of the fastest courses in the world.

A flat course is not automatically easy to pace. Three parts of the day each need a plan of their own.

The Olympic Stadium start: your first 5 km

If the first kilometre is crowded, you'll be tempted to win back the lost seconds as soon as the road opens. The arithmetic shows what that costs. At 3:30 pace, being 30 seconds ahead of schedule at 5 km means you ran 6 s/km faster than your goal pace for the whole opening stretch.

Here's the rule: if your 5 km split is more than 30 seconds faster than the table below, ease off until your 10 km split matches the table. Don't try to protect the gap.

The Amstel stretch: wind with little shelter

The organiser lists "the kilometres along the Amstel" as a course highlight, and its course highlights page describes a rural stretch along the river that follows part of the Olympic route. Check the official course map for where that stretch starts and ends in 2026. Open riverside can give wind a clear run at you, and the wind direction on race morning decides on which part of the stretch you face it.

Here's an illustration with made-up numbers, not a measurement of Amsterdam's wind. Say a wind costs a 3:30 runner 8 s/km over 8 km into it, and gives back only 4 s/km over 8 km with it. That's 64 seconds lost and 32 regained, a net loss of 32 seconds, even though a headwind and a tailwind leg look like they should cancel out.

The practical rule is to run the headwind leg by effort and accept a slower pace there. Burning energy to hold 4:58.6/km into the wind is a bet that the tailwind will pay you back in full.

Tangents: why your watch disagrees with the km markers

A tangent is the shortest line through a bend. Certified road courses are measured along the shortest possible route a runner could take without being disqualified, according to the IAAF/AIMS measurement manual, so every wide corner and every swerve around a slower group adds distance that the course doesn't count. GPS error between buildings can add more on top.

If your watch beeps for each kilometre a little before the official marker, that gap is growing. Take manual laps at the official markers, or compare the race clock at each marker with the table below. Don't steer by your watch's average pace.

Checkpoint table for 3:00 to 4:30 at Amsterdam

These are even-pace cumulative times from the start mat. Use them as a baseline and adjust once you know the race-week forecast. Pace is shown to one decimal place because rounding to whole seconds adds up to noticeable drift over 42.195 km. Even 4:16.0 is rounded: held exactly for 42.195 km, 4:16/km finishes in 3:00:02, so when your goal is a time barrier, round the pace target down.

If you're picking a column based on a recent half-marathon result, compare the prediction methods first. Our half marathon to marathon predictor guide shows how far apart they can land. To turn the column you choose into a band for your wrist, use the marathon pace band calculator.

What extra distance costs at each goal pace

Suppose your watch logs 42.6 km, which is 405 m more than the certified distance. If you hold the official pace for all of it, you finish late:

For a 3:30 runner, the difference between 4:58.6 and 4:55.8 is 2.8 s/km. You won't feel it at 10 km, but by the finish it's two minutes. If past city marathons show your watch reading long, set your target from the last column, not the official pace.

Race-week timeline for Sunday 18 October 2026

For the Friday row, carb loading for a marathon turns the 36-hour window into grams and meals. The forecast row is the one that's specific to Amsterdam. With little climbing to plan around, wind direction is the input that shifts where you should spend effort.

After 18 October: results and 2027

For results, start at the official site rather than a copy on a third-party page. We're not giving a date for 2027. Wait for the organiser's newsletter, and read about the pre-sale for Le Champion members that the Dutch site advertised for 2026 ("Pre-sale voor members") before registration opens. The 2026 full and half marathon were already sold out more than a month before race day.

FAQ

What date is the 2026 Amsterdam Marathon?

The official program lists Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October 2026. The TCS Marathon starts on Sunday 18 October at 09:00 and the Mizuno Half Marathon the same day at 13:20. The Samsung Galaxy 7.5K runs on Saturday at 14:15. If another page shows a different date, go by the organiser's program.

How hard is the Amsterdam Marathon?

The route has little climbing and the organiser describes it as one of the fastest courses in the world, so what makes it hard is the distance, not the terrain. The two things specific to this course that you should plan for are wind on the open Amstel section and the pace of your first 5 km. The marathon has a 6-hour time limit.

What is a TCS marathon?

TCS is Tata Consultancy Services, the title sponsor. "TCS marathon" is a sponsor name, not a race format, qualifying series or distance. The same prefix appears on other city marathons, such as New York City and London. The Amsterdam race itself is a standard 42.195 km road marathon.

How much does a ticket for the Amsterdam half marathon 2026 cost?

The official registration page lists the 2026 Mizuno Half Marathon entry fee as €43.50. As of 14 September 2026 the half marathon was sold out, so the official Atleta resale, open until 14 October 2026, is the realistic way in. Check the price shown there before you pay.