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.

15/09/2025

🍷Bacchus 25' antics🍾

Comment and share if you spot yourself!

11/09/2025

Welcome to Thunder Dragon Thursday our homage to the tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.
When we started our Marathon in the Bhutan more than 15 years ago, we thought long and hard about the branding. The event started life as the Himalayan Kingdom Marathon, but as lots of people thought the race was in Nepal we rebranded the event to the more appropriate Thunder Dragon Marathon. The Druk or Thunder Dragon, is everywhere in the country.
In the local Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as Drukyul which literally means the Land of the Thunder Dragon. Bhutanese refer to themselves as Drupa or people of the Thunder Dragon, the King of Bhutan is known as Druk Gyalpo, the Dragon King, and the Crown Prince is Gyalsey or the Dragon Prince.
In reality the Thunder Dragon is a euphemism, a term used to describe the occasional but dramatic thunderstorms that occur high in the mountains, believed to be the roaring fire of the mythical dragon.
Fortunately we don't see these storms in the late spring when we stage the Thunder Dragon Marathon and the weather is generally clear and sunny.

10/09/2025

In case you missed them all the race photos from Sunday's Bacchus Half Marathon and 10K are available through the link on the race website. https://clicksports.photohawk.com/galleries/bacchus-wine-marathon-and-10k-2025
As with all our events, the images are free to download for personal use. There is also a link to the results, although the time is less important than the wine, particularly as it's not an easy place to run. To demonstrate that our fastest finisher in the half marathon finished in 1:40:40 and the last finisher came home in 5:18:28. The fastest in the 10K was 49:43 and the last to cross the line finished in 3:29:11. As the post-race party was still going strong into the early evening, first or last there was plenty of time to enjoy the fun.
As Bacchus is a Fun Run in every sense of the words we don't reward the fastest finishers but we give prizes to those putting the most into their fancy dress. Here are some of our favourites.

08/09/2025

Congratulations to the finishers and thank you to everyone who came out to support

Thank you to Denbies and all the volunteers!

Don't forget to follow and tag in your Bacchus 25' memories

Bacchus 2025 was a success!! See you next year

06/09/2025

Looking forward to seeing a record field at tomorrow’s Bacchus Wine half marathon and 10K. The wine is being chilled, the food is prepped and the course is looking magnificent.

04/09/2025

It's time for some more fun facts about Bhutan in celebration of Thunder Dragon Thursday. The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan borders India on one side and China on the other, the two most populous nations on earth, each with more than 1.4 billion people. Bhutan in contrast is home to just 770,000 people making it one of the least populated countries on earth.
That won't surprise anyone who has visited Bhutan, especially if you've been there to trek. You could easily spend three of four days walking through the mountains, even close the main towns, without seeing another individual.
All our trips to the Thunder Dragon Marathon and Half Marathon, which takes place on Sunday May 24 involved some trekking. The longer 8-night holiday includes four days walking along the Druk trail, which links Paro in the west of the country to Thimpu the capital.

01/09/2025

Due to another cancellation we have a couple of last minute places available for this year's BMW Berlin Marathon. Time is short because the race is just under three weeks away on Sunday September 21 so move quickly if you are interested. As always they are guaranteed entries but part of the travel operator programme so have to be sold with a hotel room. Send a note to [email protected] for more information.

31/08/2025

While we were all sleeping, this year's TCS Sydney Marathon presented by Asics, took place. This was the event's first running as the 7th Abbott World Marathon Major and it was a cracker. Conditions were perfect: cool and sunny with glorious blue skies and the crowds were out in force.
Times were fast particularly at the front with the Dutch middle distance star Sifan Hassan setting a race record to claim victory in the women's race in 2:18:22 while Ethiopia’s Hailemaryam Kiros produced the fastest marathon run in Australia to win the men’s event in 2:06:06.
We had a big group out in Sydney for the first time who ran well and had a fabulous time on this iconic course. Here are a few shots from the day.

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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.