The second edition of the Abbott World Marathon Majors (AbbottWMM) Global Marathon is now open for registration with race weekend set for 13 to 14 November 2021. The first edition took place in May with 1,200 finishers from 75 countries. They created a global celebration of running across social media and united to keep their marathon journeys alive during an unusual year.

The November Global Run Club marathon will conclude a busy second half of the year, following the six Abbott World Marathon Majors, which will take place over a period of six weeks. The return of the majors in this unprecedented back-to-back schedule creates a unique opportunity to generate hype and interest around the sport like never before.

This virtual marathon will give all those runners not able to travel to race, or who were not successful with their Major entries, a chance to run with their global community and put a year of hard training to great use. For those aged 40 and over there is also a potential 2022 World Championship invite as a reward for their efforts.

For those lucky enough to be running one or more Abbott World Marathon Major this autumn, the Global Marathon can be the final push before the year-end to get the most out of their fitness and run with friends and family closer to home.

Run your race

Runners will have a 48-hour window to run their Global Marathon (in one continuous activity) beginning at 00:00 (local time) Saturday 13 November until 23:59 (local time) on Sunday 14 November, so they can pick the best time of day and weather conditions that are available to them.

There are two registration options available to runners. The premium entry includes a Global Marathon finisher’s medal, finisher’s hat, personalised race bib (mailed to runner), their result on the live leaderboard and digital finisher’s badge. While the standard entry includes personalised race bib (emailed to runner), results on the live leaderboard and digital finisher’s badge.

AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships

As part of this global virtual event, there will be 100 places on offer for the top age group runners for the AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships in 2022. Runners from both entry categories, who are aged 40 and above by Friday 31 December will compete across nine age categories (male and female) for the places. Race results for qualifiers will be checked and verified before being published separate to the live leaderboards. The top age group performers will then be invited to line up at the World Championships in 2022 (location and date of the championships to be announced later in the year).

Runners are required to have an Abbott World Marathon Majors profile to be eligible for a World Championship invite and their performance in the Global Marathon will not generate world ranking points for the main AbbottWMM Wanda World Rankings, which are running from 1 January– to 31 December 2021. Check out the race page for full terms and conditions.

Training plans from Coach Kastor

Andrew Kastor, former competitive runner, author and professional coach, provided three 16-week marathon training plans for the first edition to guide beginners, intermediates and advanced runners to the Start Line and their race goals. They can be accessed here.

Sign-up for the Global Marathon now before Tuesday 31 August.