Our Marathons

The ancient Great Wall of China, the amazing wildlife of South Africa and the magnificent Greenlandic ice cap... Getting curious from all this talk about adventurous marathons? Click on the links below to learn much more about our tough, beautiful marathons and find out how you can enter the races and get the experience of a lifetime.

The Great Wall Marathon®

The Big Five Marathon®

The Polar Circle Marathon®

Bagan Temple Marathon®

Standards and principles for Adventure Marathons
All Adventure Marathon courses are characterised by magnificent scenery and/or a unique cultural atmosphere. They will be rewarding and adventurous to runners and spectators alike. The scenery of the course is substantial, and surface, ascents, weather and other smaller obstructions are not taken into consideration. For that reason, an Adventure Marathon will always be a more physically demanding run than traditional marathons, and it will contain elements of cross-country running, trekking and mountain running. However, the basic characteristics of running must be retained, and obstructions, which cannot be defeated in running, are kept to an absolute minimum.

These standards must be followed in order for a marathon to earn the title of Adventure Marathon®:
The course must follow the classical marathon distance of 42.195 m. Various surfaces must occur on the course, and the route cannot appear homogenous. The surface can consist of asphalt, rock, gravel, sand, soil, ice, water, stairs, fallen branches and trunks etc. Abrupt ascents must be part of the course. As a minimum there must be 5-10% ascents spread over five to ten km, unless the marathon is taking place in high altitude. At least one of the following extreme elements must appear on the course: high altitude (more than 2,000m), steep, extended ascents, sand dunes, cold/frost or heat (more than 30 degrees Celsius) The course must be difficult to such an extent that runners will be finishing 25-75% later than during an average marathon. No more than 10% of runners can complete the marathon in less than 3h15min. The average time must be higher than 4h30min.