Frequently asked questions
You must cover over 27 miles as declared by the event.
As a Challenge event is a timed ultra then there must be a minimum of 15 starters for an event to count.
There doesn’t have to be 15 finishers of marathon or greater distance, but there must be 15 starters.
The Challenge Event will have a declared distance to be covered. For example 3.28 mile loops.
If you complete 8 then you’ve covered 26.24 miles as declared by the event and have completed a marathon.
What a garmin says or if you did “bonus miles” is irrelevant, its what the race organiser records as the distance you’ve covered in the results that count.
If a multi day event contains one or more stages of over 26 miles then each may be counted as a separate marathon (or ultra if over 27 miles) if firstly, results are published for each individual stage and secondly each separate stage can be entered as an individual event.
For example
1) The Marathon des Sables, is a multi day event, it has stages of over 26 miles but you can’t enter individual days, you complete the whole challenge or you get a DNF. If you complete the event, you can count this as a single ultra (as it has a stage of over 27 miles). If you receive a DNF, no matter at what point, then it doesn’t count as a marathon or an ultra.
https://marathondessables.co.uk/
2) Two/Three day challenges organized by such companies as XRNG, VoTwo etc. Each daily stage is of marathon distance or longer and each individual stage can be entered separately and results are published separately so really these are two or three linked events, not a single inclusive event. You could enter days one and three, or just day two for example. Each individual event completed can be counted as a marathon or ultra.
No. For an event to count as a marathon or ultra then at least one stage must be of 26 miles or longer.
The Club has decided that the long running Windermere 10 Marathons in 10 Days challenge shall continue to be counted as 10 separate marathons for 100 Marathon Club purposes.
The reason we are saying this is that each day is in fact an exact measured road marathon of 26m 385y, still upholding the integrity of the marathon. Other events will only be considered as exceptions if they meet these criteria.
Yes. These can be found on the Excluded Events page.
These exclusions will remain in place for each of these events until evidence is provided to the committee that any future running of a particular event meets the required criteria
No. Where an event is declared shorter than a marathon distance then it won’t count no matter the distance you actually run.
Where a course in good faith is found to be “short” after the event then for the first year that an event is found it will count for 100 Marathon Club purposes (providing other criteria are met).
If action isn’t taken by the organisers to ensure the race is of the appropriate length then in future years the event won’t be listed on our race lists and the event won’t be counted.
If you know in advance the course is short then the event won’t count for 100 Marathon Club Purposes as it isn’t a marathon.