Thousands of marathon races are organized in the world every year and the distance of all marathons run on officially measured racecourse is 42,195 meters. Although marathons are usually run on asphalt roads, there are also marathon races that are run on trails, mountains, deserts and poles.
The marathon distance takes its name from the town of Marathon, which is about 40 km from Athens. The marathon distance, which was 40 km in the first Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896, took its final form as 42,195 meters since 1921.
According to the data of the World Athletics (WA), more than 6 million people all over the world ran marathons in 2019. The Istanbul Marathon, Turkey’s largest marathon, was first organized in 1979 with the initiative of a group of German tourists and Hasan Saylan won the race with a time of 2:35. The organization, which was organized under the name of “Asia-Europe Run” in the first years, took the name “Intercontinental Eurasia Marathon” as the only marathon run between two continents in the following years. Since 2013, it is organized under the title of Istanbul Marathon in November every year.