Best Marathons in the World | Marathon List 2019 – runnersworld.com

Signing on for a marathon is one of the biggest commitments a runner can make. It’s a promise to wake up early on weekends, go longer than you’re used to (and then longer again), and run yourself into the best shape of your life. So how do you even begin to pick one?

First, remember this time-tested truth: They’re all good marathons. Our staff and contributors have run a combined 193, and we’ve yet to encounter a true, offensive-to-the-sport, jail-the-race-director stinker.

That said, when we dig deep and look into our warm, sweaty hearts, we have our favorites we think you should consider. These races stand out for excelling in their own way, whether scenery, vibe, speed, support, or overall package. And we didn’t create this list alone. Runner’s World consulted six marathon icons for their input on the greatest races on earth. So when you’re ready to make the plunge for the first, or fiftieth, time, know that these marathons promise the race of a lifetime.

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Best Views | Best Urban | Most Underrated | Best for Running History Nerds | Best Vibe | The Major We Most Want to Run | Greenest | Best for PR-Seekers | Biggest Party

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Best Views: Big Sur

Avg. time: 4:40:33
Race size: 3,492 (2019)

Robert Reese, who has run 74 marathons, with a personal best of 2:52:11, describes unique beauty he found during the race. As told to Leah Campano.

All marathons are tough; many are scenic. The Big Sur International Marathon is both: 26.2 challenging, postcard-perfect miles. When I went out in 2012, my plan was just to soak it all in—the towering redwoods, the rolling hills, the sweeping coastline of the Pacific. Beyond that, I didn’t have a particular goal in mind. The morning of the race I felt pretty good; I thought I might run sub-3.

Ten miles in, I was heading up Hurricane Point, a two-mile ascent that has rocky cliffs on one side of the road and the pounding surf on the other, when the sandwich I’d had for lunch the day before hit me. The menu had called it “The Knuckler”—a couple of burgers piled high with bacon, eggs, and onion rings and held together with a knife. Now, it was packing its punch.

I dashed across the iconic Bixby Bridge, a curved, 714-foot span along the Northern California coastline, and ducked into a porta-​potty. A few yards away sat Michael Martinez, the tuxedo-clad “Grand Piano Man,” who delicately plucks the keys of his nine-foot Yamaha at Bixby’s turnout each year. His peaceful melodies, along with the rhythmically crashing waves below, provided the backdrop as I rid myself of the monstrous sandwich. For a few fleeting moments, I forgot about the vengeful burger. I was no longer held hostage by the unforgiving plastic walls of the porta-potty, but instead, transported back onto the dramatic cliffside course along Highway 1. It was, I had to admit, a beautiful moment. It let me pause and take in the unreal rural beauty of this race. I returned to Big Sur the following year, eager to run such a breathtaking course once again—and hit my goal time, sans Knuckler.

Best Urban: Los Angeles

Avg. time: 5:20:10
Race size: 3,498 (2019)

Olympic medalist Deena Kastor on why the L.A. race is one of her all-time favorites. As told to L.C.

The Los Angeles Marathon starts at Dodger Stadium and finishes at the Santa Monica Pier, and everything that is quintessential Los Angeles is packed into the miles in between. And since the vehicles that cause LA’s famous bumper-to-bumper traffic are banned from the roads, you can travel those 26.2 miles faster on foot than you usually can in a car.

The route passes by locations where some of the most celebrated of celebrities have walked and performed. As you approach mile four and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, local Japanese drumming ensemble Koshin Taiko provides a steady beat to help you to pace yourself down Grand Avenue. Around mile seven you catch your first glimpse of the Hollywood sign high up on a hillside. Between miles 11 and 12 are the Capitol Records Tower, TCL (Grauman’s) Chinese Theatre, and the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard, where Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley lookalikes come out to cheer in front of these celebrities’ stars.

After running down blocks of Rodeo Drive (turns out the cheapest way to visit this shopping thoroughfare is by running down it as fast as you can!), you pass through Beverly Hills and Brentwood before making the final descent into Santa Monica.

But the famous sights aren’t the only reason I love this race. The crowds are fun, festive, and celebratory (local high school students create “Cheer Alley” along mile 17, dancing and competing to make the most noise). The average temperature of the race is typically a beautiful 65 degrees, thanks to the breeze that blows in off the ocean. The race does lose 460 feet in elevation, which is pretty significant for people trying to run fast. But I’m just enamored by how much you can take in and all that is a part of this race. Spirit and traditions always draw me to different marathons, and LA’s high energy, palpable camaraderie, and iconic landmarks make it a star, worthy of its own award.

Most Underrated: Baystate

Avg. time: 3:58:51
Race size: 1,870 (2018)

Want the speed and meticulous planning of a Major with the ease of a smaller event? The Baystate Marathon in Lowell, Massachusetts, is your race.

• Elite Vibes in a Local Setting

Ben Bouchard, 33, PR’d at Baystate in 2018 (3:42). Even in the field of well over 1,000 runners, he still felt the homegrown atmosphere. “It’s not too crowded, but it’s big enough to feel like you’re part of something. You feel special,” he says.

• Race Organizers Sweat the Small Stuff
Baystate veterans tout the event’s accessibility, from parking (“I had a quarter-mile walk to the starting line”) to fluidity (“my husband can drop me off and within 10 minutes, I’m running”) to logistics (“short bathroom lines!”). “[The organizers] always emphasize it’s a race by runners, for runners,” says Marla Chae, 49. “It comes out in the experience.”

• Built for Speed
In both 2017 and 2018, 30 percent of the Baystate field ran a BQ. The course’s flat profile and easy-to-learn two-loop route make it a common site for PRs. “The second half [of each loop] is slightly downhill,” says Heather Searles, 36, who ran a 3:03 BQ at Baystate in 2018. “The perfect amount to add a bit of pep to miles 18 to 24.”

• Soup! Instead of bagels and bananas at the finish, Baystate serves up hot soup from nearby Cote’s Market: chicken noodle, vegetable, and minestrone. “For the last three miles, that hot soup line keeps me going,” says Chae.

• Everyone is a Winner
Her third time running Baystate, Chae forgot her watch, crucial to calculating her chip time for PR bragging rights. A volunteer at the finish used her bib number to provide her time: 3:59:32. Chae screamed. The volunteer gave her a PR keychain. “They attract a lot of elite local names, so I was surprised they’d care about someone who ran four hours,” she says.
—Tyler Daswick

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For Running History Nerds: Eugene

Avg. time: 4:02:04
Race size: 1,482 (2019)

For generations, Eugene, Oregon, has been touted as the international capital of track and field. The town—roughly 170,000 people surrounded by farmland two hours due south of Portland—is the kind of place that one just passes through. Unless you’re a track history dork. Founded in 2007, Eugene’s USATF-certified marathon course pays homage to some of running’s most storied locales.

It usually starts and ends at Hayward Field, the home of the USA Track and Field Olympic Trials and numerous NCAA championships. (Due to construction at Hayward, the finish line for 2019 and 2020 has temporarily relocated to Autzen Stadium at the University of Oregon.) The route winds through the leafy U of O campus, once home to legends like Bill Bowerman, Bill Dellinger, Phil Knight, and Steve Prefontaine. More recent icons including Ashton Eaton and Galen Rupp also trained on these roads. Locals who proudly staff the event are often happy to volunteer their own personal connection to Oregon track stars of yore.

Racers can round out the weekend by grabbing a beer at Ninkasi Brewing Company, a local brewery frequented by Olympians, taking a selfie with the sculpture of Bowerman on the U of O campus, or paying their respects at Pre’s Rock, a monument on Skyline Boulevard where the legendary runner crashed his car and died in 1975. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that Pre’s words loom over the town and its race as something of an unofficial motto: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
—Mary Pilon

Best Vibe: Kauai

Avg. time: 5:23:39
Race size: 295 (2019)

Ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes once ran 50 marathons in 50 days. Here’s why he’d come back to Kauai.

In Hawaii, “aloha” is more than a greeting. It’s a spirit; a feeling of community, compassion, and camaraderie that symbolizes the islands’ culture. It’s this aloha vibe that makes the Kauai Marathon—a grand celebration of blisters and bliss in a warm and welcoming tropical setting, with food, drink, music, and dancing—unique in the running world.

Known as the “Garden Island,” Kauai is a lush green rainforest with stunning waterfalls, volcanic peaks, picturesque beaches, and fragrant tropical flowers. The race starts at Poipu Beach, then winds its way along the coastline and through the iconic “Tree Tunnel”— a long, narrow, natural canopy of eucalyptus trees that stretches completely over the roadway. Approaching the 11-mile mark, half-marathoners split off toward the finish on the beach, while those racing the full course head to the top of Kalaheo, an arduous 850-foot climb over about four miles into the highlands that makes Heartbreak Hill look like a speed bump. I like to say the Kauai Marathon is a scenic half marathon and a brutal full: the course ascends 2,171 feet.

For several miles, the course parallels itself. Runners pass in both directions, offering each other high-fives and cheers of encouragement. Additional motivation comes from the rousing local entertainment, which includes hula dancers and a Taiko drum troupe pounding heart-thumping percussion you can hear from a mile away.

The official aid stations are well-​stocked, staffed by enthusiastic and kind volunteers wearing leis and bright Hawaiian shirts. Many local residents along the route set up makeshift aid stations, offering everything from water to fresh-cut fruit and ice baths.

In 2014, I stopped at one such outpost to squeeze a sponge-full of ice water over my head from a bucket that a father and his young daughter had put out on their front lawn.

The girl, who was probably 5 or 6 and had a colorful plumeria flower tucked behind one ear, watched me curiously as I tried to cool off. “What he is doing is very hard,” her father told her.

She looked at me and asked, “Is it hard?”

I smiled, “Yes, it is very difficult.”

She struck a serious tone and said, “I want to do a marathon.”

Both her father and I chuckled.

I won’t be surprised if she does. Over its 11-year history, the race has contributed more than $30 million to the island’s economy and has distributed upwards of $120,000 to Kauai nonprofit groups. My favorite is the Kauai Marathon Youth Running Program, which has provided running shoes, coaching, mentoring, and scholarships to more than a thousand “keiki” (kids) ages 2 to 18 to encourage living a healthy, active lifestyle, all in a fun and supportive environment.

I’ve run Kauai five times, and I definitely plan on returning to run it again. With any luck, I’ll get to share some footsteps with all those keiki.

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The Major We Want to Run Right Now: Berlin

Avg. time: 4:11:30
Race size: 46,983 (2019)

With a fast course and boundless history, you don’t have to look hard to see why Berlin is on our to-do list.

Greenest: Banff

Avg. time: 4:48:47
Race size: 2,250 (2019)

Located 80 miles from Calgary, Alberta, in Canada’s first national park, the Banff Marathon boasts a stunning route. Behind its serenity, these efforts preserve what you see.

• Edible cups! While non-wax cups could take up to a year to compost, Banff’s cups, which are made from a material derived from corn, break down in just four days. “Though we don’t suggest it, you could literally eat them if you wanted to,” says event director Paul Regensburg.

• Everything is recycled. Instead of trash cans, Banff features sorting stations that route the material to recycling facilities. Everything is recycled, from your race bib to your gel wrappers. In 2018 they diverted 100 percent of their waste from landfills.

• Carbon neutrality. Each year, Banff calculates their greenhouse gas emissions, including participant travel, and offsets them through partners Brightspot Climate and Walker Industries. In 2019, they offset 1,089 tons, the equivalent of taking 236 vehicles off the road for a year.

• Double-duty bibs. Banff’s bibs give participants free bus rides for the weekend on the park’s green public transit system. On race day, runners not looking to PR have the option of having their bibs stamped at each of the course’s 10 aid stations, where park interpreters will share about Banff’s history, geography, and wildlife.

• A virtual gift bag. “Everyone who’s done a race just
dumps out the gift bag, takes the two things they want, then throws everything else in the garbage,” Regensburg says. “We’ve eliminated that completely.” Banff’s “virtual gift bag” provides electronic vouchers to pick up the freebies you want, without burdening you with anything you’d toss.

• Big plans.  Some of Banff’s numbers are impossible to top (that 100 percent landfill diversion rate), but Regensburg says those figures motivate Banff to diversify how they approach sustainability. Future ideas involve going cup-free in favor of refillable water bottles, making medals out of wood, and expanding Banff’s green bus program so that even spectators can skip driving for the entire race weekend.
—T.D.

Best for PR-Seekers: California International Marathon

Avg. time: 4:05:55
Race size: 7,811 (2018)

In 2018, 153 finishers ran the Sacramento race at or under the Olympic Trials Qualifying standard (2:45 for women and 2:19 for men), 265 women cracked the three-hour barrier, and 162 men ran under two hours and 30 minutes. These factors set the stage for PR paces.

The Course
Stick-straight courses with steady elevation losses can help runners conserve energy and potentially run faster (about two minutes speedier for a four-hour marathoner, depending on the elevation drop), says biomechanist Wouter Hoogkamer, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. CIM isn’t totally straight but it only has a few gentle turns. Plus, its 340-foot net elevation drop may be deceptively helpful. The first 16 miles are a series of rolling hills, and although hills with a net drop are harder than pure downhill courses with the same net elevation change, the undulating terrain may actually be easier on the body, say Hoogkamer.

The theory makes intuitive sense, says Peter Weyland, Ph.D., director of the Locomotor Performance Laboratory at Southern Methodist University. Running with the same gait and loading patterns for 26.2 miles over a flat course will result in fairly extreme repetitive stresses on leg muscles and tendons; navigating hills requires minor variations in biomechanics that can provide some relief.

The Weather
Runners clock the fastest marathon times when temperatures are in the 40s (Fahrenheit). As the mercury rises, paces slow—by five minutes when temperatures are in the 50s and by 19 minutes when they hit the 70s, compared with a day in the 40s, according to a study in PLOS ONE.

For the past three years, Sacramento’s weather has been right in the sweet spot on race day, with temperatures in the mid-to-upper 30s at the start, climbing to the mid-50s at the finish. Plus, the air is typically dry and the dew point is low—and when there’s less water vapor in the air, sweat can evaporate more easily and keep the body cool, says pro runner Tyler McCandless, Ph.D., a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and pro runner who finished second at CIM in 2017.

Wind matters, too: Marathoners can burn 2 percent of their energy battling blustery conditions. Typically, in Sacramento in early December, there’s minimal wind on the east-to-west course, and rarely a headwind, says McCandless. Instead, you’ll “more likely to have a partial tailwind or cross-wind,” says McCandless. Wind at your back can help tremendously, he adds. CIM also rolls through neighborhoods with plenty of trees, which can help scatter the wind. That means you won’t get vicious wind tunnels like you sometimes get in big-city marathons.

The Competition
CIM attracts runners who want to run fast, and you often have some of the best distance runners toeing the line at the same time. “Some see the opportunity to compete alongside the best in the field as motivating, and they want to rise to that occasion,” says Sari Shepphird, Ph.D., licensed sports psychologist. Being surrounded by steep competition can increase your drive to perform, pushing you to test your limits. You’ll stomach higher levels of fatigue, too.

Plus, running in a group breaks up the monotony of a long race and provides mental relief, according to Shepphird. Research shows that when you’re mentally fatigued, you’re more likely to feel physically tired. In 2017, McCandless ran with a pack of roughly 10 runners for the first 20 miles. “When you have that many people running together, you’re not worried about wind or anything, just maintaining the same pace and running smooth and consistent.” With 10 kilometers to go, McCandless had the mental and physical focus to surge hard when it was time to make a move.
—Christine Yu

Best Party: Médoc

Avg. time: 6:14:00
Race size: 8,127 (2019)

We could give you 26.2 reasons to read Ben Cheever’s account of the Marathon des Châteaux du Médoc, but for brevity we’ll start with three: Goblets of wine at the water stations, runners with fake phalluses, and singing Frenchman. These are the rest.