Running a Marathon Abroad
The distance does not change: 42.195 km everywhere. Everything else does — how you enter, the time difference, the climate, the course profile and the logistics of the three days before. A marathon abroad is prepared twice: in training, and in the calendar.
There are no longer six Majors
This is the point most articles have not caught up with. The Abbott World Marathon Majors were six races — Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York — and Sydney joined in 2025, bringing the total to seven.
Cape Town is being assessed through 2026 and becomes the eighth Major in 2027 if the assessment succeeds; in 2026 the race does not yet hold that status. Shanghai is a candidate, unconfirmed.
For a Quebec runner chasing the star medal, the consequence is direct: someone who has finished the six historic races no longer holds a complete set. Check the official count before planning your last race — it is exactly the kind of detail that decides a trip.
How to get a bib
Three doors, and they do not open the same way.
The ballot. Tokyo, London, New York and Berlin draw lots among hundreds of thousands of applications. Entries open on fixed dates, often close to a year before the race, and the acceptance rate is low. You enter several ballots in the same year knowing you may be drawn twice — or not at all.
The qualifying time. Boston requires a certified performance on a measured course within a set window, and the real cut-off tightens each year with the number of applicants. Hitting the standard does not guarantee a place.
The charity bib or the tour operator. This is the most reliable route for a runner with fixed travel dates, but it implies a fundraising commitment or the purchase of a package.
What travel does to the race
Jet lag is the most underestimated variable. Eastward — Europe, Japan — it is harder to absorb than westward. The prudent rule is one day of adjustment per two or three time zones crossed, and never fewer than two full days before the start.
The expo is compulsory at almost every major race: bibs are collected there and nowhere else, at set hours, often across town. It is not a formality you settle on race morning.
And there is tourist walking. A day of sightseeing on foot the day before destroys four months of preparation. Sightseeing comes after.
Climate, which decides more than the course
Tokyo runs in winter, Berlin in autumn on a flat course famous for records, New York in November over a rolling route with five bridges. A Quebec runner training through summer for an autumn race trains in conditions warmer than the race — that is an advantage. The reverse, training in cold to race in heat, is the scenario to avoid.
The travelling runner’s kit
Nothing new on race day, ever. Shoes and race kit travel in hand luggage: a checked bag lost the day before a marathon ends the project. Carry your own fuel — the gels handed out on course are rarely the ones your stomach knows.
Organising the trip from Quebec
The calendar governs everything: you book the flight after you have the bib, never before. An adviser can place your lodging near the start or the finish — which changes a race morning — and schedule the sightseeing days after the race rather than before.
Voyages AquaTerra holds a Quebec travel agency licence. Our clients are covered by the Compensation Fund for Customers of Travel Agents, under the conditions set out in the regulation. Call an adviser at 1-866-628-6241. To extend the stay around the Tokyo race, see our Japan guide from Quebec.
