“Go Before Everyone Finds Out”: 7 New International Races Set to Blow Up in 2027

Klagenfurt, Austria

1Wörthersee Marathon ranks No. 2 in Austria from year one

The course is simple: one 42.195-kilometer (26.2-mile) lap of the Wörthersee, Carinthia’s largest lake. It starts at the Klagenfurt lido, follows the southern shore to Velden, and comes back along the north side. According to the organizers, the gentle rollers are packed into the first 21K, and the back half flows more smoothly.

The race was built by the VCM group, which runs the Vienna City Marathon, together with local organizer Mario Theissl, so it launched with an AIMS-certified distance and a spot on the World Athletics Global Calendar. More than 1,000 runners came from abroad, and women made up 41 percent of the field. Theissl’s take on the first edition: “It’s a beach feeling.

It’s the most beautiful marathon in the world.” So what will 2027 cost you? The full price is €94.

The men’s winning time in year one was 2:34:39. This is a race about finishing, not fast times, and the finish closes at 6 p.m.

, nine hours after the start. The runner behind the YouTube channel robinsworld ran a first marathon here in 3:52. “Unfortunately I didn’t reach my goal, but it was okay for a first marathon.”

If you’re choosing where to run your first 42K, what this race gives you is time.

Wörthersee MarathonSun, September 26, 2027 · D-336 · Klagenfurt, AustriaSee race details

Den Haag, Netherlands

2The Hague Marathon draws a 6,000-person online line on day one

It’s the only race of the seven that hasn’t been held yet. The Hague has hosted the City-Pier-City half marathon since 1975, but its first full marathon is November 1, 2026. When registration opened on May 28, 2026, more than 2,000 marathon entries sold on the first day alone, and about 6,000 people waited in the online queue, according to Dutch running site Runners.

nl. On June 5, day eight of registration, organizers announced the marathon had hit its provisional cap and opened a waitlist. The race starts at 10 a.

m. on the Malieveld in the city center, and from 5K to 30K it runs through the greenhouse country of the Westland to the southwest. Then it swings toward the North Sea, follows Scheveningen’s harbor and beach promenade, and heads back to the Malieveld.

“I wanted to show The Hague and the Westland the way you truly experience the city and its surroundings,” said Wim Jonkman of Golazo, who designed the course. The cutoff is 5 hours, 30 minutes, and entry fees were €90, €99, and €105, depending on the first-come tier. Annemerel, a YouTuber who grew up in the Westland, ran half the course seven weeks before race day.

Once the route leaves the city, greenhouses line up one after another, and around 18K it passes a flower auction. Annemerel’s words for it: “Straight away, a completely different world.” The Westland stretch runs from 5K to 30K.

It’s rare for a city marathon to send runners that far through greenhouse villages.

Marathon The HagueSun, November 1, 2026 · D-7 · Den Haag, NetherlandsSee race details

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

3Riyadh Marathon grows from 10,000 to 50,000 participants in 4 years

When it launched on March 5, 2022, as Saudi Arabia’s first international marathon, the race drew just over 10,000 participants. The next year it grew to about 15,000, then to more than 20,000 (from 125 countries) in 2024, and in 2025 it drew 40,494 people from 131 countries. In 2026 it expanded into a four-day festival, January 28–31, drew more than 50,000 people, and sold out every distance from the marathon down to the 5K.

It has carried a World Athletics Elite Label for five straight years through 2026. The elite racing is fast, too. The first men’s winner ran 2:06:27, and every year since, the winner has come in between 2:08 and 2:09.

The 5K and 10K loop through a university campus, while the half and full head off campus onto the wide boulevards of northern Riyadh and back. The marathon entry fee was 180 riyals in 2026, and the 2027 date hasn’t been announced (the first edition was in early March, the 2026 race in late January). Most of that growth came in the shorter races, though.

So how many people actually run 42K in the middle of this festival? In 2024, when the event drew more than 20,000 participants, 682 ran the marathon. That same year, 7,938 ran the 10K and 8,446 ran the 4K.

Riyadh MarathonJanuary 2027 · expected · Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaSee race details

Shinjuku, Japan

4Tokyo Legacy Half raises its cap to 18,000 in its fifth year

The Tokyo Marathon Foundation created this half marathon in 2022. It starts and finishes at the National Stadium (MUFG Stadium) and follows the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic marathon course through Jinbocho and Kanda, with one turnaround at Nihonbashi and another at Hitotsubashi. In 2026, the cap went from 15,000 to 18,000, and on October 18, 18,202 runners actually started and 17,293 finished (a 95.0 percent finish rate).

Both the men’s and women’s course records fell that day. In the race’s 2026 overview, race director Yasuhiro Oshima wrote that what the event aims to protect is being “authentic.” Dah-san, an office-worker runner, was looking forward to running Tokyo’s big avenues for the first time on race day, then added: “I entered the Tokyo Marathon too, but I didn’t get in.”

The runner behind the travel-running channel YOKO wrote: “The climb continues from the 15K point to just before the finish, so watch out.” The 2027 race is set for October 17, and the entry fee was ¥13,200 in 2026. The English registration page points overseas runners to a 200-spot sub-elite division with half marathon qualifying times (under 1:14 for men, 1:40 for women); if you don’t make it there, you move on to the general lottery.

So why include a race that’s well past the “before everyone finds out” stage? Because for a runner who missed out in the Tokyo Marathon lottery, it’s the closest way to run the same city’s big avenues and finish inside an Olympic stadium.

Tokyo Legacy Half MarathonSun, October 17, 2027 · D-357 · Shinjuku, JapanSee race details

Santiago, Chile

5Santiago’s FEDACHI Marathon adds the South American Championships in year 2

Chile’s national athletics federation organizes this race itself. The first edition, on November 23, 2025, had a cap of 8,000 (local outlet Redgol reported that about 8,500 ran), and the second, on November 15, 2026, raises the cap to 12,000 and doubles as the South American Marathon Championships. It starts and finishes at Santiago’s National Stadium, and starting in 2026 the finish line moves inside the stadium.

“The finish of a marathon is much more than a finish line,” said race director Francisca Bahamonde. The marathon entry fee is 40,000 pesos (38,000 pesos early). The marathon covers the same loop twice.

The runner behind the YouTube channel Un Trote Suave, who finished the first edition in 3:24 and change, flagged two things. Where the climb on Pedro de Valdivia ends and the course heads downhill, marathoners mixed with 10K runners—“it was chaos.” And the wall at 36K came from the heat more than the legs.

The verdict on the second lap was short: “The bad thing was that we were running very much alone.” Can year two fix what that runner pointed out? The start moves 30 minutes earlier, to 6:30 a.

m. With 4,000 more spots, the second lap should feel less lonely, but the downhill where marathoners merge with 10K runners could get more crowded. That leaves the heat.

How fast a mid-November morning in Santiago warms up will decide this race’s second year.

FEDACHI MarathonSun, November 15, 2026 · D-21 · Santiago, ChileSee race details

Ostrava, Czechia

6Ostrava’s Zátopek Marathon opens with a 2:10:05 win

Czech running great Emil Zátopek won the 5,000 meters, the 10,000 meters, and the marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. The Ostrava marathon that carries Zátopek’s name debuted on October 26, 2024, and Kenya’s Kennedy Ronoh won that first edition in 2:10:05—5 seconds off the 2:10 target. Before the second edition in 2025, organizers cut the course’s elevation change by 9 meters, added more straightaways, and had it recertified internationally.

Sports manager Alfonz Juck’s goal for year two: to “push the limits of performance.” The third edition is October 24, 2026. The race starts and finishes on the track at the Vítkovice municipal stadium.

The 2025 winning time was 2:12:24, more than 2 minutes slower than the first year. Czech runner Lord Koblih, who ran a first marathon there in 2025 in 3:08:08, called the course mostly flat and singled out the crowds first: “There were so many people cheering, even from the windows of the apartment blocks.” The toughest stretch, Lord Koblih says, was the last 6K, straight into a headwind the whole way.

If you’re an amateur chasing a time on this flat single loop, check the wind forecast first.

3rd Emil Zatopek Ostrava Golden MarathonSat, October 24, 2026 · Ostrava, CzechiaSee race details

Moutiers, France

7Grand Raid 3 Vallées crosses 170K of ski country in summer for the first time

This trail festival traverses Les 3 Vallées, the world’s largest ski area, in midsummer instead of winter. The first runners left Moûtiers at 8 p.m.

on July 30, 2026, and over four days, 1,767 runners from 14 countries ran six events, from 10K to roughly 170K (about 106 miles). The longest ultra packs 12,000 meters (about 39,400 feet) of climbing and links famous ski villages such as Méribel, Courchevel, and Val Thorens. France’s Baptiste Carimentrand won the first edition in 29:16:05, and women’s winner Claire Bannwarth finished ninth overall in 35:33:04.

It isn’t a road race, but its first-year size alone earns it a spot on this list. Organizer Alexandre Picquier’s stated goal: “The idea is to create a true celebration of trail running across the entire ski area.” For the runner behind the YouTube channel Assen, who finished the 70K, the hardest moment wasn’t the altitude.

On a long early descent, while dodging other runners, Assen hit a knee on a rock—and then ran the remaining 65K. A 2027 edition has been reported, but the date and fee haven’t been announced. First-year turnout fell just short of the organizers’ 2,000-runner target, so there should still be room in year two.

Assen’s words after the finish: “One of the toughest but also most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had.”

Grand Raid Kiprun 3 Vallées MoûtiersJuly 2027 · expected · Moutiers, FranceSee race details