Marathon Races
Yearly, there are over 800(!) marathons that are organized worldwide. Many of them – over 300 of them across 83 countries – belong to to the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS), which was founded in 1982.
The five most prestigious marathon races take place in Boston, Chicago, New York City, London, and Berlin, and they form the World Marathon Majors series. This series awards $500,000 annually to the top overall male and female runners in the series. Along with these US races, the marathons in Amsterdam, Honolulu, Paris, Rotterdam and Stockholm make up Runner’s World “World’s Top 10 Marathons”. Other notably large marathons are the United States Marine Corps Marathon, Los Angeles, and Rome races.
There are some more “unusual” marathons out there as well. For example, there’s the Midnight Sun Marathon which is held in Tromsø, Norway at seventy 70 degrees north. Now, with GPS, marathon races are held in the Antarctica, at the North Pole, and across desert terrain. There’s The Big Five Marathon which takes place among South Africa’s safari wildlife, the Great Wall Wall Marathon which takes place on The Great Wall Of China, The Polar Circle Marathon on Greenland’s permanent ice cap at -15 degrees Celsius temperatures, and The Great Tibetan Marathon, which takes place in all of its Zen glory at an altitude of 11,000 feet.
As another note of distinction, the Intercontinental Istanbul Eurasia Marathon is the only marathon where runners cross over two continents – Europe and Asia – during its course.
Speaking of marathons, run over to your nearby online casino (and if you’re in the US, make sure you’re playing at quality casinos that accept US players) that’s right there at your fingertips and start playing online slots and other casino games, one of the more fun activities to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon (heck – make that ANY day of the week!).