The series is clearly growing in popularity, attracting hundreds of thousands of celebrities, including musicians such as Harry Styles, who ran the Tokyo and Berlin Marathons this year.
The demand for race participation is so high that the access industry is booming. One of the only ways to secure a spot beyond the few guaranteed entries for ultra-fast runners and charity fundraisers is through marathon tour companies, which sell bib bundles with travel packages for thousands of dollars. Other hopefuls could try their hand at the ultra-competitive lottery that takes place in six of the seven marathons, but that is unlikely. Last year, only 3% of lottery applicants got into the New York City Marathon. This is a lower probability than getting into an Ivy League university.
As the circuit’s popularity soars, getting people to take part in the race has become a major challenge, forcing the once shoelace-knit marathon federation to find a way to scale up to meet growing demand.
humble beginnings
The majors weren’t always like this.
When the series debuted in 2006, its focus was solely on appealing to elite runners, offering $500,000 in prize money to the top men and women over a two-year cycle.
The idea grew out of a conversation between race directors who began sharing best practices informally, which turned into a collective action.
For example, long-time Chicago Marathon director Carey Pinkowski said that before the organization debuted on the circuit, its members worked together to petition the International Amateur Track and Field Federation, now known as World Athletics, for stricter doping measures.
Mark Milde, longtime race director of the Berlin Marathon, recalled that part of the inspiration for the series was in response to sponsors’ attempts to use the results of major races to recognize their own “Runner of the Year.”
“We didn’t like the idea,” he said. “This was kind of the impetus for us to do something together.” In 2004, he said, ahead of the New York City Marathon, he and the directors of four other marathon events around the world met in New York City and devised a scoring system to determine the best marathon runners.
Milde said planning was initially handled by a team of race directors. The Abbott World Marathon Majors is now a separate legal entity from the marathon event itself, with its own CEO and staff. Many race directors serve on the group’s board of directors.
But we didn’t grow to where we are today overnight.
Milde said it took several years to convince other race directors that it was worth investing more deeply in the participation of everyday runners.
“We thought it made sense to reach out to ordinary runners, or average runners (whatever you want to call them), and do something for them,” Milde said.
This investment becomes one of the series’ signature elements.
In 2011, the World Marathon Majors introduced a 5-star certificate, signed by all five race directors from the original World Marathon Majors group, and awarded to daily participants who completed all five marathons.
That year, Milde remembers, they handed out only seven.
But the idea of appealing to everyday runners as well as elites was the beginning of what would become a hallmark of major marathon circuits, and within a few years it swelled into a phenomenon that became a fundamental aspect of the marathon’s growth over the next 15 years.
