2:09 Events

2:09 Events Organising the finest travel packages to the Worlds best marathons, from New York to the Great Wall,

Guaranteed race entry to the New York Marathon and other major events with back-up coaching advice from a group of high achieveing athletes such as Mike Gratton and Chicago Marathon and Olympic 10,000m finalist Paul Evans.

In case you missed it, we are now live with our packages for the 2025 TCS Sydney Marathon, the newest member of the Abbo...
17/12/2024

In case you missed it, we are now live with our packages for the 2025 TCS Sydney Marathon, the newest member of the Abbott World Marathon Majors club. The race is scheduled for Sunday August 31, a slightly earlier date than usual.
That is in part to avoid conflict with the BMW Berlin Marathon which is on September 21 and follows Sydney on the autumn Marathon Majors calendar, with the Bank of America Chicago following three weeks later on October 12.
In addition to Sydney we also have packages available for Berlin and Chicago, although some of the options for both are already sold out.
Packages to the TCS New York City Marathon won't be available until after the Christmas.

We are now live with our packages to the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, which is scheduled for October 12, 2025....
12/12/2024

We are now live with our packages to the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, which is scheduled for October 12, 2025. As with all the Abbott World Marathon Majors events, places are limited and to access our guaranteed entries you also have to book a minimum stay of four nights in our hotel.

11/12/2024

Compared to the following weekend when Storm Darragh hit the UK, conditions at this year's GRIM Challenge in Aldershot back in early December were relatively mild. It rained but there were no ice covered water pools or drifts of snowfall as we have had in previous years. But this year's GRIM was still wet, muddy and dirty enough to live up its name. Here's a quick recap of the event courtesy of our new videographer, Jono Thompson.

With Sydney joining the club, it's going to be a busy autumn season in 2025 for the Abbott World Marathon Majors. We are...
10/12/2024

With Sydney joining the club, it's going to be a busy autumn season in 2025 for the Abbott World Marathon Majors.
We are a travel travel partner for all four autumn events, as well as the two non-British spring races.
We have a limited number of guaranteed entries to each race which have to be sold with one of our travel packages.
The BMW Berlin Marathon, scheduled for September 21, is already on sale with some of our hotel options now sold out. We will start selling packages to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, taking place on October 12, from this Thursday. The TCS Sydney Marathon, which has moved its date in 2025 to August 31, will be on sale on December 17 and we expect to have the TCS New York City Marathon available before the end of the year.
All our entires for the Marathon Majors this year sold out by March, so don't wait too long if you are interested in running any of these events in 2025.

Despite the blustery weather we had a good turn out for our annual Santa Run at Denbies Vineyard in Dorking this morning...
08/12/2024

Despite the blustery weather we had a good turn out for our annual Santa Run at Denbies Vineyard in Dorking this morning. Big congratulations to our official charities Eikon and QEF, which managed to raise substantial funds from the day's activities. All race images are now available for free download from
https://clicksports.photohawk.com/pages/209-events-photography

It was a suitably 'grim' day for running yesterday but that did little to trouble the field at the GRIM Challenge in Ald...
02/12/2024

It was a suitably 'grim' day for running yesterday but that did little to trouble the field at the GRIM Challenge in Aldershot. You are not too worried about rain when you are wading through pools or waist high water, although it does make the mud muddier and more challenging when navigating the netting, which was troublesome enough anyway. The temperature, in comparison to last year when we had to break the ice on the water, was mild. That just encouraged a few hardy souls to brave the race topless.

Race photos are available for free download from
https://clicksports.photohawk.com/galleries/grim-challenge-2024

Full results are available here: https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=20305&RId=34&EId=1

We are now open for bookings for the 2025 BMW Berlin Marathon. As a travel partner of the event, our guaranteed entries ...
24/11/2024

We are now open for bookings for the 2025 BMW Berlin Marathon. As a travel partner of the event, our guaranteed entries have to new booked in combination with a hotel package, for which there is a three-night minimum. Go to our website for more details.

Here are a few more images, courtesy of Kevin McGarry, of today's multi-terrain half marathon at the Leptos Cyprus 4-day...
23/11/2024

Here are a few more images, courtesy of Kevin McGarry, of today's multi-terrain half marathon at the Leptos Cyprus 4-day Running Challenge.
With tough weather conditions back in the UK, it seem churlish to say that it was a testing race because of the heat, but it was.
The Challenge concludes tomorrow with the fourth and final race, the Pathos 10K.

As we await the start of today’s half marathon, here are a few more images from yesterdays’s 11K hill race at the 4-day ...
23/11/2024

As we await the start of today’s half marathon, here are a few more images from yesterdays’s 11K hill race at the 4-day Cyprus Challenge.

It was six but will grow to seven in August 2025 when the TCS Sydney Marathon joins the Abbott World Marathon Majors. Th...
21/11/2024

It was six but will grow to seven in August 2025 when the TCS Sydney Marathon joins the Abbott World Marathon Majors. There is a very good chance it will become eight in 2026. Today the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in South Africa announced that after a positive report card from the 2024 event, it had passed stage one of the candidacy process to qualify as an Abbott World Marathon Major.
If it does the same at next year's event, which is scheduled for Sunday October 19, then it will become Africa's first Marathon Major in 2026.
Should it achieve that goal, the small concession is that, to avoid an already congested autumn Marathon Majors programme, the race will switch from an October race to a May event in 2026,

If you are scraping the ice off the car this morning or putting on an extra layer to keep out the chill, you probably do...
21/11/2024

If you are scraping the ice off the car this morning or putting on an extra layer to keep out the chill, you probably don't want to hear that it's another beautiful day in Cyprus. There are a few clouds in the sky, the temperature is in the low 20s and you definitely don't need anything more than shorts and a t-shirt.
It's prefect running conditions, which is handy because the 20th Leptos Cyprus International 4-day Challenge starts today with the 6K run from the beachside path next to the Coral Beach Hotel & Resort, where most of the runners are staying. It's a staggered start with runners going off individually in a random order. From there it's a flat, fast route past the banana plantation and out along the beach. There are no prizes awarded today and a big part of the challenge is managing your effort for the races that are still to come, particularly tomorrow morning's 11K hill run and Saturday's trail half marathon.

Such a pleasure to be back in Cyprus for this year’s 20th anniversary running of the 4-day Cyprus Challenge. The fun sta...
20/11/2024

Such a pleasure to be back in Cyprus for this year’s 20th anniversary running of the 4-day Cyprus Challenge. The fun starts tomorrow with the first race, a 6k time trial along the coast of Coral Beach.

A little bit of Medal Monday and an early sneak preview of the finisher’s medal for next year’s Farnborough Winter Half ...
18/11/2024

A little bit of Medal Monday and an early sneak preview of the finisher’s medal for next year’s Farnborough Winter Half Marathon. Since much of the race runs around Farnborough Airport, our title sponsor, the medal is an homage to the airport and winter conditions the race is usually run in.

The race which takes place on Sunday February 9 is closing in on 2000 entries and on current trend we may not have too many left in the New Year.

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Farnborough
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Our Story

Many people ask what the 2:09 in 2:09 Events means and are surprised to find out that is the best marathon time of the company founder, Mike Gratton, when winning the London Marthon in 1983.

Now 2:09 Events are one of the leading running specialist travel companies in the World and have membership to TOURS, a group of travel agencies specialising in running travel from 32 different countries. This status has allowed the company to become the International Travel Partner for 5 of the 6 Abbott World Marathon Majors; Tokyo, Boston, Berlin, Chicago and New York.

Having organised events for his running club Invicta East Kent AC back in the day it was inevitable that putting on running events would feature and now 2;09 Events have organised events in Cuba and Uganda, and continue to organise in Bhutan, Cyprus and the Azores.

In the UK the portfolio now includes; South Downs Marathon and Half, Farnborough Winter Half, Longleat 10km and Bacchus Wine Marathon, 3 Santa Runs and a host of charity events throughout the year.