Adventure marathon
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An adventure marathon is a marathon that takes place in unusual surroundings, where the scenery and 'adventure' of the course is more important than finishing in the fastest possible time. Adventure marathons have taken place, for example, on The Great Wall of China, on the permanent ice cap of Greenland, in the Antarctic, as a safari among The Big Five Game in South Africa, and at 3,500 meters elevation on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas.
A number of conditions must be followed for a marathon to qualify as an adventure marathon. Among these are:
- the route must go through extraordinary natural or cultural scenery, on surfaces like rock, sand, ice or water
- the course must be extremely demanding physically, so that the time required for completion is longer than at typical marathons
- The course must contain a relatively large number of abrupt ascents or take place at high elevations.
Adventure marathons are usually a part of a larger tour package, and are arranged several times annually in different parts of the world.
