Shenzhen Marathon

The Shenzhen Marathon is an annual road marathon held in early December in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, with a field of 30,000 runners. It is a single-distance event over 42.195 km. The course starts at the Shenzhen Citizen Center in Futian District and finishes at Bao'an Seaside Plaza in Bao'an District on the western waterfront, a point-to-point route across the city from the civic centre to the Pearl River estuary. The race starts at 7:00 in the morning. Entry is by online registration followed by a ballot, because applications routinely exceed the 30,000 places. Pre-registration runs for about a week in late September, results of the draw come out in mid-October, and selected runners then pay within roughly a week. The organiser has also run a second draw after the first round of payments, so unpaid places can return to runners who missed out. Entry fees have been around 200 yuan per runner, and a confirmed entry is not refunded once registration has succeeded. Check the official Shenzhen Marathon site and its WeChat account for the current edition's dates, fee and race-pack collection details.