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5 of the best places for marathon tourism: holiday runs with benefits that go beyond fitness
- From the stunning cliffs of Halong Bay to the temples of Angkor Wat, many of the world’s famous sights and monuments can be explored while you jog
- Marathon tourism is perfect for runners looking to combine exercise and travel – and add a wow factor to your social media
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It’s 5am on a bitter Sunday, and I’m standing in a caravan park somewhere on Australia’s Great Ocean Road in Victoria, trying to wiggle the feeling back into my hands. Hundreds of Lycra-clad people are performing eye-popping stretches around me.
We are here to sprint along one of the country’s most renowned tourist attractions: a rugged stretch of coastline that starts 100km (62 miles) from Melbourne and makes for a famously scenic drive. But for one weekend each May, it becomes an astonishing athletics track for ultramarathoners and fun runners alike.
I’m not alone in making the dubious decision to suffer shin splints with my sightseeing. The State of Running 2019, a report by RunRepeat.com and World Athletics (IAAF), found that race participation rates are increasing in Asia, and that globally, travelling overseas to compete has never been so popular.
Following the recent cancellation of this month’s Hong Kong Marathon in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, athletes who have put in the training hours over the last few months may find themselves looking further afield for a run.
From the limestone cliffs of Halong Bay to the temples of Angkor Wat, many of the world’s major sights and monuments can be explored, literally, on the run. Do you dread hordes of slow-moving tourists at France’s Mont-St-Michel? Jog around it. Did you love the temples from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? Sprint through Petra in Jordan. The choice is intoxicating. But it begs the question: is the ordinary marathon no longer enough?
“Running has become very common, and everybody’s doing it, and that is why people want to give it an extra twist,” says Steen Albrechtsen, senior press officer at Albatros Adventure Marathons, the company behind several adventure races including the Great Wall Marathon in Huangyaguan, China. A gruelling event that was first established in 1999 and features 5,164 steps, the last two years have seen it attract participants from more than 70 countries.
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