Nara Marathon 2026

Nara Marathon 2026 is a major two-day road running event in Japan's ancient capital, combining a large mass-participation marathon with a World Heritage 10K, pair relay and Mini Nara Marathon. The marathon field is capped at 11,750 runners, while the 10K has 4,000 places, giving the weekend significant scale as well as a strong destination-race character.

Saturday 12 December is centred on the Mini Nara Marathon, which starts at 14:00 on a special course inside Rohto Nara Konoike Park. The main programme follows on Sunday 13 December. The marathon and pair relay start at 09:00, with the World Heritage 10K at 09:30. The marathon starts and finishes at Rohto Field Nara and runs out towards Tenri before returning to the stadium. Official course material highlights Nara's historic landscape, including the Heijo Palace Site, and the 10K uses a Nara City out-and-back route.

The marathon has a six-hour limit and eight official cut-off points, with the final finish deadline at 15:00. The pair relay uses the same overall distance, with a relay point at 25.7 km and a 12:35 relay-point deadline. The 10K has a 95-minute limit and a cut-off at about 7.5 km. Start blocks for the marathon, relay and 10K are assigned using the estimated finish times supplied at entry. Net time is used for event results, while Japan Association of Athletics Federations certified records use gun time.

The marathon participates in the Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group World Rankings, giving eligible runners aged 40 and over the opportunity to earn age-group ranking points.

All runners must complete packet collection on Saturday. There is no race-day check-in. Rohto Field Nara is around a 20-minute walk from Kintetsu Nara Station and organisers advise using public transport because venue parking is unavailable on race day.