Mainz Marathon

Course & Elevation

The Gutenberg Marathon in Mainz was run every May from 2000 to 2023 and was replaced in 2024 by a half marathon. The city of Mainz organised it for more than twenty years, with USC Mainz as sporting organiser, and it grew into a mass event of around 10,000 runners across the marathon, half marathon, 10K, relay and a school Ekiden. Runs in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled during the pandemic and the 2022 race was called off, so the 2023 race on a Sunday in early May was the 21st and last marathon. For that final edition the start and finish moved to Große Bleiche in the city centre and the route was reworked, shortening the stretch through Weisenau and running closer to the Rhine. The course was flat and asphalted apart from some cobbled passages in the old town pedestrian zone, and the marathon was two laps of the half-marathon loop. Marathon runners who reached the half-way mark after 2 hours 45 minutes had to finish as half-marathon runners. The course records are 2:11:01 for men, set by Mohamed Ikoki Msandeki of Tanzania in 2010, and 2:29:35 for women, set by Susanne Hahn in 2008. When the city handed the event to the Frankfurt agency motion events, the marathon was dropped because few entrants chose it.