Running a Marathon is a one-of-a-kind experience – challenging, painful, and rewarding at the same time, but not reserved for professional athletes only. Unlike other prestigious sports events such as the Olympics, Marathons are open both to elite runners and to the masses. Many of these races take place in the Spring, attracting international audiences and participants from all over the World. The team at SportingPedia decided to compile a list of the world’s top 15 Marathons based on the number of participants, prize money for race winners and Google search popularity.
For this list, we looked at some of the oldest and most prestigious events, including the Athens Classic Marathon, the successor to the original Marathon that once occurred in Ancient Greece. We took the size of the race and the elite field into account, which is why we included the Abbott World Marathon Majors – the only exception being Tokyo, the youngest of the Marathons. The overall popularity of the event was also a key factor in putting together this list, so we analyzed Google searches in order to find out which are the most searched Marathons on the Internet.