Marathon races. They date back to the historic Battle of Marathon, referring to the messenger who delivered the news of the victory to Athens, running over 40 kilometers. After declaring the news, he collapsed and died immediately, on the spot. This sparked an interest in long-distance running and people created marathon and half-marathon races. Every country and major city has its own marathon race, some of them being more popular than others. Just like with any other popular competition, people love placing bets on who might take the whole thing. Bookmakers make use of these circumstances and send out promotion codes, like this Betfair promotion code 2019.

But, which marathon races are the best, the most popular? Here are the world’s most popular and interesting marathon races.

The Boston Marathon

This is the world’s oldest marathon race, at least the annual kind. Held every year since 1897, and on a working day, Monday, of all days. It is quite the race, or rather, a spectacle to behold. The reason for it being on a Monday has to do with a national holiday, Patriot’s Day, which is always the third Monday of April. In order to apply for the race, you would need to run a Boston Qualifier race, which qualifies you for the marathon race in the following year, unless you plan to run for charity. Being a downhill course, the race times do not count as world records, even though there had been world records on the course.

The London Marathon

This is one of the world’s most popular marathons, as is the Boston Marathon. It is not an old race, being established in 1981. It is always held in Spring. It counts as a world record race, and many of the world’s best runners head to London every year to try and break the record. Everyone considers this marathon one of the best ones and records are frequently broken on the course. The notable ones are the male 2 hours, 3 minutes and 5 seconds, and the female, 2 hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds, by Eliud Kipchoge and Paula Radcliff.

The New York Marathon

Held every year except 2012 due to Hurricane Sandy, the New York Marathon is one of the largest races, often having the most runners. The record was 51,999 runners and 51,394 finishers in late 2013. Late, because the marathon is held in November and has been every year since 1970.

These are some of the world’s most popular marathons. The others worth mentioning are the Tokyo, Berlin and Chicago marathon. There are other notable marathons, yet these are often considered the major ones and are almost always at the top of the lists.