The month of February brings a handful of fun holidays to keep everyone’s spirits up through winter. Groundhog’s Day arrives on Feb. 2, Mardi Gras begins on Feb. 13, and Valentine’s Day comes on Feb. 14. If you want to test your running prowess this February, there are also some great races to get involved in. Here’s what you need to know to keep your running schedule active throughout February.
Across the United States, you can look forward to several upcoming marathons, 5Ks, 10Ks, and more. There are even some fun novelty runs for you to try. Check out February 2024’s running event offerings in the list below.
When race organizer Zary Evelyn reps Run Barbados at international marathons, people are always drawn to the famously sunny and friendly destination.
“So, we lead in with Barbados, and then you convince them to come for the run,” Evelyn told me as we sat at the George Washington Coffee House in Bridgetown, Barbados. “The run is sort of like the deal clincher. The reason why they choose Barbados over somewhere else.”
Indeed, during my five days in Barbados, I could see why runners from around the world would be attracted to the scenic island. Especially since Run Barbados makes it worth travelers’ while by offering a three-day event.
Photo courtesy of Barbados Tourism Marketing, Inc.
“It’s come for a holiday and indulge your passion for your sport at the same time,” said Evelyn. “So, it’s not geared primarily at elites.”
This year, the event kicks off on Friday, December 6, with a nighttime one-mile fun run around the historic Garrison Savannah. In the early 1800s, Royal Engineers drained a swamp to become a parade ground for soldiers. Now, Garrison Savannah is the island’s horse racetrack.
“You come dressed up in fluorescent colors,” Kamal Springer, manager for sports tourism at Barbados Tourism Marketing, Inc., told me. “You have music, food, drinks. We try to make it more of a fun opening to the activity.” The 2023 race marked the run’s 40th year and involved lots of glow sticks.
Photo courtesy of Barbados Tourism Marketing, Inc.
Saturday and Sunday, runners move to the rugged and hilly east coast for longer races. On Saturday, they can choose between a 5K or 10K. On Sunday, the options are a half or full marathon.
“If you do all three days, you get special challenge medals,” Evelyn said.
For the fun mile, 10K, and marathon, you get a gold challenge medal. Runners win silver by either combining the mile, 5K, and marathon or the mile, 10K, and half. For the bronze, runners must complete the mile, 5K, and half marathon.
“But you get a medal in any case for every race,” Zary said. Medal collectors will love Run Barbados.
Before COVID-19, Run Barbados was the Caribbean’s biggest running event, with 2,765 participants in 2019. Now, it’s climbing back up toward pre-pandemic numbers. Most of the visiting runners come from North America and the Caribbean. Springer hopes the new Barbados Tourism Marketing, Inc. office opened in Panama last year will attract more Latin American runners.
“We know that Ecuadorians and Colombians typically are long runners, so we’ll try to encourage more of them to come,” said Springer. “And then Panama has a close tie with Barbados, so we’ll try there as well.”
Photo courtesy of Barbados Tourism Marketing, Inc.
Wherever you’re from, if you want to roll sun, water sports, Caribbean food, and music into your running vacation, start planning for December 6-8.
Disclaimer: While this article was not sponsored, Outdoors Wire did visit Barbados during a press trip withVisit Barbados. As always, Outdoors Wire operates independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
What is runDisney? And how did the world go from old-school Olympic marathons to having the planet’s most recognizable mouse hosting races? Today, we’re explaining everything you need to know about Disney marathons.
Let’s take it from the top. The lore behind marathons stretches all the way back to ancient Greece. Legend says it all started with a man named Pheidippides, who ran 26 miles between the towns of Marathon and Athens. While the Pheidippides story is an entertaining one, the real history behind modern marathons doesn’t go back quite that far.
As National Geographic writer Erin Blakemore explains, runners have French linguist and classicist Michel Bréal to thank for marathons. Bréal introduced the idea of a roughly 24-mile footrace to the International Olympic Committee. The organization adopted the idea, then extended it to 26.2 miles in 1908.
How we got from there to the world of runDisney is a much more complex web to untangle. As you’ve probably guessed, runDisney is a division of The Walt Disney Company that hosts marathons, 5Ks, and other running events. The project began in 1994 when Disney held its inaugural race at Florida’s Walt Disney World. Today, runDisney is still up and running with a calendar of events hosted online, at Disney World, and at California’s Disneyland.
Photo by Josh Hallett
How does runDisney work?
Through the runDisney website, runners can register for various Disney running events. If you’ve ever tried planning a Disney trip, you should know that the rule for planning ahead absolutely extends to these races.
Registration is a simple process, wherein runners can expect to fill out basic demographic information and pay a registration fee. That fee not only reserves runners a spot in their chosen race but also comes with perks like a finisher medal. Even virtual race participants get these goodies; events like the Neverland 5K provide runners with a medal, shirt, certificate, and digital race tool kit.
What’s the appeal of these Disney races? As Eve Chen, USA Today Consumer Travel Reporter, explains, “I don’t run, but years ago, I promised myself I’d do a marathon if I made it into grad school. I don’t think I could’ve kept that promise anywhere but at Walt Disney World.”
“It’s not just because there’s no qualifying time and the course is paved and flat, all valuable perks for beginners. It’s because it still felt like a Disney vacation, even though I had to put in work,” Chen continues.
In 1977, James Earl Ray and six other convicts escaped over the wall of Tennessee’s Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. For about two days, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassin fled bloodhounds, battling steep and densely overgrown slopes. When the convicts were caught, Ray had only managed to put eight miles between himself and the prison in 55 hours.
The prison break of one of the U.S.’s most notorious criminals wouldn’t sound inspiring to most people. But Gary Cantrell, better known as Lazarus Lake (or just Laz), has a taste for extremes. The endurance race designer and director lives in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. His most famous race is the Barkley Marathons, held annually since 1986 in Frozen Head State Park, just a few miles from the aforementioned penitentiary. Legend has it that Ray’s pathetic mileage inspired Laz, who figured he could have made it at least 100 miles in the same amount of time. Laz designed a race where runners would complete a 20-mile loop over extremely tough terrain five times in 60 hours. One of the Barkley’s mottos would become: “Meaningless suffering without a point.”
Runners can’t just decide to enter the Barkley. Ever since the race’s inception, it’s been shrouded in mystery and bizarre traditions. Dutch ultrarunner Michiel Panhuysen first heard of the Barkley around 2010 and was instantly intrigued. Part of the appeal was the strange application process, which included writing a cover letter about why you wanted to participate.
“The application procedure is kept secret and the exact time and date of the race start are not announced beforehand,” Panhuysen writes at the beginning of his new book, “In The Spell of The Barkley.” “Participants also run for miles off-trail through the forest, and they frequently get lost. In 2010, only one participant finished the race! Only one!” Some years, that number is zero.
Image courtesy of Bloomsbury Sport
Panhuysen’s book details his growing fascination with the Barkley, his multiple times running the race (never getting beyond the second loop), and the characters involved. He recounts his own history of extreme sports and ultrarunning. In an interesting and simple-to-follow account, he tries to explain the sport’s appeal to the 99.99% of people who think running 100 miles straight sounds completely nuts, not to mention impossible.
In addition to chronicling the Barkley, Panhuysen takes readers on other ultraruns around Europe. He explains odd details like sleep strategies during an ultramarathon and the fact that runners must simply accept the fact of hallucinations and learn to deal with them. He also charts how his own ultrarunning grew into a compulsion, leading him out of a 27-year relationship.
“Everything revolved around ultra races. Before a race, I would be preparing for it for weeks. I changed my work, sleep rhythm, eating and drinking habits to accommodate the race.” After an ultra, it took him weeks to recover — just in time for the cycle to start again.
Author Michiel Panhuysen. / Photo courtesy of Bloomsbury Sport
The races sound so incredibly miserable — a broken finger here, a terrifying middle-of-the-night descent down a dark rock face there, hunger, cold, exhaustion. Readers will want to know why ultrarunning becomes so important to participants in the sport. Ultrarunners are devoted to the idea of mind over matter. The book reminded me of people with anorexia who are proud to thwart the needs of the body and survive without food. Ultrarunners do that and more — going without sleep, shelter, and rest.
Ultrarunning taught Panhuysen how to react to all this lack. “Extreme running might have cost me dear, but I got something important back in return: an indestructible positive attitude with which I can process bad things in my life in a simple way.” This book probably won’t turn you into an ultrarunner, but it’s a fascinating peek into an extreme sport.
Writer received a free copy of the book for review.
It takes a lot of work to get in shape for a marathon. Even many dedicated runners need a few months of training to prepare. If you want to successfully run a marathon, you’ll need to start with a plan. Training plans can differ depending on a person’s preferences and activity levels, so do some research to find one that’s right for you. And once you settle on a plan, stick to it. Remember, most things worth accomplishing require a solid amount of effort. Keep this in mind every time you feel ready to give up. With enough training, you’ll be ready to run your next race.
Start your training journey by checking out this list of upcoming 2024 marathons happening throughout the United States. You can also learn about some of the country’s biggest marathons here.
Your first marathon is an unforgettable moment. Racers must train, develop routines, and, of course, go on plenty of literal test runs to prepare for their big moment. Then, there’s the logistical side of entering a marathon. Before a runner can participate in a major race, they have to register and meet certain qualifications. You have to be fast, and you have to get all your ducks in a row.
Part of this process includes providing the marathon organizers with an official and certified qualifying time. With thousands of runners competing for a spot in some marathons, not even meeting the standard qualifications ensures your entry to the race. Curious which marathons are big enough to warrant all this competition? Check out the list below for info on five of the biggest marathons in the United States.
Training for a local half-marathon motivates many runners to get out there and put in their miles, no matter if it’s raining or they’re in more of a couch mood. But an even more fabulous training approach? Signing up to run a half in another city, state, or country. You get to sightsee, exercise, and rub shoulders with hundreds or even thousands of locals and other visitors.
We’ve assembled a list of some of the world’s most beautiful half-marathons. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You might prefer a remote run through the woods or a chance to admire a city’s architecture during the race. Either way, you’ll find an incredible destination half-marathon (plus some shorter runs and full marathons) in this roundup.
Everybody knows zombies are shambling creatures with body parts falling off. But do you know if you can outrun them? As the days grow shorter and the nights long, runners around the country are dressing up in costumes and trying their luck in Halloween races that feature monsters, zombies, and other scary creatures.
Whether you are a marathon runner, a 5K jogger, or just want to walk a course in your best costume, there’s an event for you. At zombie runs and Halloween races, dressing up is a big part of the entertainment. Many of these events even feature costume contests. Explore these eight spooky running events happening throughout the U.S. this fall, and get some ideas for fun costumes.
