President of the Beirut Marathon Association May Al-Khalil announced at a press conference held at Le Bristol Hotel – Beirut that the 17th edition of the Beirut International Marathon is on Sunday, November 10th, 2019.
Under the title: “Together we run for Lebanon”, the race will start from the Beirut Waterfront to the Martyrs’ Square in downtown Beirut.
The first Beirut International Marathon was held on October 19th, 2003 and attracted over 6,000 runners from 49 countries, and tens of thousands of Lebanese and international spectators. These numbers increased every year, most notably reaching 32,000 runners from 71 countries in 2009 and over 47,800 runners in 2017. It was recently accredited as a Silver Label Road Race by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations).
Fingers are crossed. Will we witness any surprises in 2019? Which only brings us back to last year’s new best time (16th edition), where Morrocan Mohamed El Aaraby’s defeated 2017’s winner and record-holder of the time, Kenyan Dominic Ruto, with a difference of… just 1 second! El Aaraby reached the finish line in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 41 seconds.
The women’s category record is still at 2017, held by Eunice Chumba from Bahrain who completed the race in 2 hours, 28 minutes and 38 seconds.
A quick look at the winners (both men and women) from 2003 until 2018 shows that most of them have been Ethiopian nationals. Kenya holds second place with 11 winners, then we have two Moroccans and one Bahreini in the list.
Hussein Awadah broke the Lebanese record at the race in 2010, completing the distance at a time of 2 hours 20 minutes 31 seconds.
Attendance and participation in the Beirut International Marathon races continue to grow annually. The event commands the attention of national and international media. Beirut Marathon is not just about the race. It has the theme of unity at its core. You can run for a cause, whatever cause you believe in.
What are you waiting for? 3, 2, 1… And let’s go!