HDBank Green Marathon 2026: When 'Records' Are Not at the Finish Line

Can Gio at 4 a.m. has no high-pressure sodium lights. There is a salty smell from the far river mouth, the sound of footsteps on hardened mud, and on the road around the Bird Park – where on normal mornings only fishermen and wading birds gather – this September 2026, thousands of people will move along the mangrove forest recognized by UNESCO as a world biosphere reserve. I remember a first-time 42km runner once told me: 'I don't dare think about the finish. I only dare think about each kilometer. Just like in life.' That person won no medal, but that sentence has stayed with me for a decade of journalism. It made me understand that some races don't need results to succeed. The event, HDBank Green Marathon 2026 – its fifth season – is organized by HDBank, Unique Media & Events Joint Stock Company, and the Ho Chi Minh City Athletics Federation, under the direction of the city's Department of Culture and Sports. Unlike races where rankings dominate, this event aims to 'green' sports and integrate technology into running. The route is AIMS-certified – internationally measured – though it is not a place to break records, it is a place for ordinary people to discover their own limits. Full distances: 5km, 10km, half marathon 21km, full marathon 42km – the flagship category. There is also a children's race and team categories. I see no champion names announced; I see a mangrove forest mentioned more. That differs sharply from elite races that revolve around specific names, yet it is no less appealing. The foundation of the event lies not in achievements but in people. No national champion is announced, no Olympic qualification pressure. But this very absence leaves room for stories of people who run not for medals. From children completing 1km cheered by their parents, to a 60-year-old grandfather running his tenth marathon – all are part of Vietnam's running community. Considering the organizing committee's strategy of combining registration with the HDBank app and eKYC to enable running online in the 'Green Marathon online' mode across the country, I realize they are intentionally extending the 'season' in a different way: not by the 2-year Olympic cycle, but by the daily rhythm of people's lives. For me, that is exactly the diversity of human limits: a race that does not start and end at the painted line, but starts when someone opens the app and goes out to train. There is a paradox in how we often evaluate a race: we look at the number of champions. But if we ask 'is a race worth organizing?' using a stopwatch, we will miss a world that moves slowly beneath the mangrove canopy. I have witnessed many recreational runners progress faster than professional athletes – not in timings but in awareness of nutrition, rest, and pace perception. A track and field journalist like me is used to following the pinnacle, but in races like this, spikes and super shoes are no longer what matters. The only decisive factor is each person's story on the road. Let's be honest about the terrain: the route through the mangrove has sand, roots, high humidity; this can hinder runners aiming for PBs. But what the mangrove offers is not softness, but the feeling of running inside a living organism. Passing through a world-famous Ramsar site, every step is a form of nature. Perhaps that is why this race has planted over 2,000 trees through seasons. That action proves that sport does not always need artificial turf; it can give back to the forest what the forest has given us. My lesson from years of writing through difficult nights and following young athletes in Vietnam is: 'Records are only shadows; people are the running track.' At HDBank Green Marathon, I see that embodied in each unnamed person. They never appear on national rankings, but they are the ones creating the 'foundation' for our nation's sports. I also remember a colleague's saying: 'Track and field and life are alike in one way: everyone has a finish line, but few run the right course.' But here, on the bumpy Cần Giờ road, people can find their own path more easily than on a standard piste. No one is judged for finishing last; no one is criticized for running slow. Only persistence is praised. I have seen fathers and mothers training in parks in the evening, or bank employees clocking out to run 5km. They receive no prize money, no live television. But when they cross the finish line, their eyes shine with an inexpressible joy. There are athletes who never finish, yet still run forever in my memory. They are ordinary runners, but extraordinary because they dare to start. As I write these lines, the HDBank Green Marathon 2026 has not yet begun, but the question 'who will win?' is no longer the only attraction. I am more curious about a child running with his parents for the first time, about a bank employee registering for 5km after work, about a businessman running a half marathon to rediscover himself. They are not the ones standing on the podium, but they are exactly the people who make me understand that the running track is not only in the stadium. Vietnamese runners, have you ever asked yourself: If there were no trophies, would we still run for something? Perhaps all the answers lie in the footsteps crossing the Cần Giờ mangrove forest.