The Six World Marathon Majors
Status: 5 of 7
- Berlin, 2013
- London, 2015
- Boston, 2023
- New York City, 2023
- Chicago, 2024
In the year 2006, the five most renowned and prestigious marathons in the world established the World Marathon Majors. In 2013, a sixth one joined the bunch. In 2025, a seventh will be the start of another expansion. The goal was to promote marathon running, and while mostly aimed at elevating professional elite-level running, it transformed those six races into the most popular ones for amateur athletes, as well – in case they hadn’t been already.
The six marathons are: Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, Tokyo, and Sydney.
When I did my EU project of running every single capital city marathon of the member states, I also inadvertently checked two of the six. Berlin and London, the latter of which used to be part of the union at the time. While running New York City marathon had always been a dream of mine, I wasn’t particularly keen on running all the remaining ones. It seemed so unattainable to me. That was until I trained really hard and in 2022 managed to qualify for Boston by accident. I couldn’t pass up on the chance, because I knew how hard it is to get into legendary Boston Marathon – and I was vaguely aware of the history and greatness of that race. It’s been the first annual marathon race ever, going since 1897. So I went to Boston, ran the race, and became hooked on completing the other Majors as well.
Even before I traveled to Boston in Spring of 2023, I tried to get a ticket to realize my long dream of running New York City that same year, and succeeded. Two Majors in one year! New York was even better than Boston for my taste, but both just played in a league of their own.
I looked into the next two marathons, Chicago and Tokyo. Chicago turned out to be easy to get into, because I had that fast qualifying race from 2022 ready, and that one counted for a signup for Chicago 2024. So I went there, ran until the finish line, and also wasn’t disappointed. What a race!
Tokyo Marathon seems to be toughest to get into, because the time qualifier slots are way more scarce than at Boston and Chicago. I have already tried several different approaches and lost in the general entry lottery twice. There are options to go via a travel agency, but those are way above my budget. My current plan is to try and go via charity entry in 2026.
It doesn’t matter to me how long it takes to one day run Tokyo. It’s just fun to follow reaching this arbitrary goal. I have learned that these ridiculous plans lead to me having great experiences and making cool memories which will remain until old age, hopefully.
I was happy to learn that a few more races will be joining the majors to more evenly distribute them around the world. Cape Town, South Africa, Shanghai, China, are in the candidate stage. But starting in 2025, Sydney, Australia will already be the seventh official race of the majors. It’s great to expand the circle and diversity of the races this way and I’ll try to go to them all at one point.