Groningen Marathon

The Groningen Marathon debuted on May 31, 2026, running as the Marathon Groningen powered by Campus Groningen under a title partnership with the Zernike-campus innovation district that hosts the start and finish. The event grew out of the long-running Halve Marathon Groningen (Half Marathon Groningen), which added a full 42.195K distance for the first time in 2026 after roughly two decades without a city marathon, alongside the existing half marathon, a 10K, a 2.5K Kids Run, and corporate Business Runs. The single-loop course starts and finishes on Zernike Campus and winds through Groningen's historic city center, past canal-side streets and university buildings, before looping through the flat countryside on the city's northern and southern outskirts. Demand for the inaugural marathon was immediate: all 2,500 marathon bibs sold out by February 17, 2026, and an additional 100 bibs released in March also sold out within hours, leaving only a waiting list. Around 1,897 runners finished the marathon on race day out of roughly 2,700 marathon starters, while about 6,500 runners registered for the half marathon (up from 4,832 finishers in the 2025 half-marathon-only edition) and roughly 3,000 more ran the 10K. Organizer Golazo has not yet announced a date for the 2027 edition, but the strength of the debut and the established half-marathon history point to Groningen Marathon becoming an annual fixture on the Dutch marathon calendar.