Want to run a World Marathon Major?

You’re not alone.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of runners want to run marathons in Boston, New York City, Chicago, London, Tokyo, and Berlin.

To secure a place in one of the six races in the Abbott World Marathon Majors series, luck can sometimes be on your side. However, it’s pretty much statistically impossible for lady luck to be on your side for all the majors’ race lottery.  For instance, running a Boston qualifying time no longer guarantees you a place and my most recent post about the Tokyo Marathon, the chances of winning a lottery place is 12%.

Planning: the first step in any six star finisher journey

Being a six star finisher, of course, is down to training and dedication, but the first hurdle is always securing a place in each race.

For your best chances, keep track of your target race’s key dates and know the ways to get in – ballot, charity, good for age/qualifying time, or others.  I found this to be the most time-consuming part of my own personal World Marathon Major journey: the planning and organisation.  Running a marathon is a major time commitment and fitting my training, charity drives, and travel plans in with work and family is challenging.

This meant a lot of cross-referencing websites, checking dates, and setting calendar reminders.

I soon found myself compiling a separate calendar to stay on top of future race dates, lottery windows, qualifying time registration, and charity application updates – and found it helped me immensely.

So helpful, I’ve successfully secured a place for both the New York City and Tokyo Marathons using the calendar/reminders and choosing the best entry option for me.

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So, now it’s a resource for you

I want to share my organisational labours with the running community, so I’ve created an easy-to-reference tab in addition to creating a public Google calendar to which you can subscribe.  So you can bookmark this post and see what dates are coming up – or subscribe to the calendar in your software of choice.

2018 and 2019 Key Dates

Subscribe to The Sarah Challenge’s Abbott World Marathon Majors Key Dates Google Calendar

I’ve created a public Google calendar to which you can subscribe; the calendar includes the key dates for future world marathon majors and, where currently available, registration dates.

I’ve managed to add dates through the Boston Marathon QT registration period and will look to add future dates when they’re announced.  It currently includes all the upcoming race dates as well (but note registration windows for all the 2018 races have already come and gone).

Subscribe to The Sarah Challenge's Abbott World Marathon Majors Key Dates Calendar

[Google support]

What do you think?  Would you find this calendar useful?  Do you know any dates that I should add or dates I may have have missed?  Please comment below, and, as always, happy running!

TSCAWMMKDC Disclaimer: Please note I’ll do my best to keep the calendar up to date, but key information, dates, and times can change.  This calendar is intended to be a helpful resource to the running community and fill a void I found when planning my six star journey; however, the individual marathons’ official websites or the World Marathon Majors official website should be consulted for the most up-to-date information!

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