adidas Manchester Marathon

Manchester is renowned for being flat and therefore fast! Many come to set their pb's and many succeed. 26.2 miles through the heart of Manchester and it's surrounding neighbourhoods, this is a beautiful part of the World and this is a great way to experience it.

The 2024 adidas Manchester Marathon route will be revealed soon - 2023 for reference

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Booking the adidas Manchester Marathon means that you'll receive our fantastic medal plus each runner will receive a finisher t-shirt. You'll also have access to live tracking on your run and a text with your finish time just after you cross the line.

• Bespoke Medal
• Finisher T-Shirt
• Live Tracking
• Relay Options

Take on the distance in a team of 2 or 4!

If 26.2 miles sounds a little too daunting, why not team up with friends, family or colleagues to cover the distance between you?

The adidas Manchester Marathon Relays offer both two and four person relay options, with each person covering part of the course. Each member of the relay team will receive a chunky medal and t-shirt when they finish.

Runner A

The person allocated as ‘Runner A’ will start the adidas Manchester Marathon at the appropriate time allocated to them.

All other relay team members

The other runners in the team will need to make their own way to the designated start points on the route. All of the points are within 1km of a Metrolink.
The relay locations will be signposted, and marshals will be in place to point you in the right direction.
Do not travel to the changeover points by car as there will be road closures in place for the event and you will not get through.
There will be toilets are each relay point.

NB – It is imperative that the person allocated the D bib does the last leg otherwise you will not get a time for your team.

Please note, the relay legs are not exact splits, but are similar in distance.

4 – Leg Relay

Runner B: A56 Bridgewater Way – Cornbrook Metrolink Tram stop – click here to see on map. What 3 Words: option.causes.branch

Runner C: De Quincey Road – Timperley Metrolink Tram stop – click here to see on map. What 3 Words: dunes.begun.civic

Runner D: St John The Divine, Brooklands (M33 3PB) – Brooklands Metrolink Tram stop – click here to see on map. What 3 Words: broad.noisy.calculating

2 – Leg Relay

Runner A: The person allocated as ‘Runner A’ will start the adidas Manchester Marathon at the appropriate time allocated to them.

Runner B: De Quincey Road (near WA14 5PH) – Timperley Metrolink Tram stop – click here to see on map. What 3 Words: dunes.begun.civic

Please ensure that you have a contactless or Metrolink card if travelling on Metrolink between the relay points.

Finish

Runners A, B and C will collect their medal and t-shirt at the relay changeover point. Runner D will collect theirs from the main finish line.

Baggage arrangements for relay teams

Rather than leave all bags in the bag drop, think ahead and make sure that your bag is ready for you at the changeover point:

Runner A give your bag to runner B to take to the changeover point.

Runner B give your bag to runner C to take to the changeover point.

Runner C give your bag to runner D to take to the changeover point.

Runner D leave your bag in the bag drop at the Athletes’ Village, in your car or with friends.

If this is your first race or you’re unfamiliar with the area, we understand you might have a lot of questions. Most key questions and common queries are answered in our Event Guides and on the website, and you’ll likely find what you need here.

Why should I run with an adidas Manchester Marathon Pacer?
The adidas Manchester Marathon Pacing Team are all experienced runners and will run even splits throughout the race which will help you to achieve your target time. It will also be a great opportunity to run with a like-minded group making your race more enjoyable.

Do adidas Manchester Marathon Pacers go by gun time or chip time?
Chip time. Pace Team Leaders will start their watches at the start line as they cross the chip timing mats.

Is there a cost to join an adidas Manchester Marathon Pace Team?
No, this is a free service. Just sign up via the entry form and then join the pacer in the start area.

What are the finish times available for the adidas Manchester Marathon Pace Teams?

2.45, 3:00, 3:15, 3:30, 3:45, 4:00, 4:15, 4:30, 4:45, 5:00, 5:15, 5:30, 6:00

I am not sure which team to join

If you can’t decide between two pace teams (eg. 3:15 and 3:30), we recommended that you join with the slower pace team – you can always speed up later in the race.

How will the pacers run the race?
Pacers will run even splits throughout the entire race. This prevents you from running too fast or too slow.

How do I find my adidas Manchester Marathon Pace Team before the race?
There are designated start areas that relate to your race number and start time. Pace Team Leaders will be on the RIGHT hand side of the road, close to the start area signs. adidas Manchester Marathon Pace Teams Leaders will be wearing backpack flags with the target times on them.

I need the toilet, will they wait for me?
adidas Manchester Marathon Pace Team Leaders will not plan any toilet breaks during the race and will not wait for you. If you need to use the loo, run ahead of your team before nipping to the loo, then, depending on your timing you can rejoin them or slowly catch up with them again feeling refreshed.

How does the adidas Manchester Marathon Pace Team handle drinking at the water stations?
Each adidas Manchester Marathon Pace Team will take water and/or isotonic from every water station to ensure that runners remain well hydrated throughout the race.

Do I have to stay with my adidas Manchester Marathon Pace Team throughout the race?
No. Runners are welcome to use the adidas Manchester Marathon Pace Teams for whichever portion of the race they think will help them most. You can run ahead or drop back at any time.

At the adidas Manchester Marathon we are constantly striving to improve the sustainability of our event to reduce our impact on the environment. When entering the adidas Manchester Marathon, you will have the option to enter as a Green Runner, a new eco-friendly option where you can forego your finisher t-shirt and/or medal (we have two different Green Runner options) in favour of donating to support, The Ocean Cleanup.

You will receive all the benefits of the individual entry, however you can choose to either forego the t-shirt (and just receive the medal) or forego both the medal and t-shirt at the end of the event. This can be done by choosing this option at the checkout when selecting your entry.

Once you select this option we will then donate the money that would have been spent creating your t-shirt and/or medal to The Ocean Cleanup. You’re helping us to not create unwanted items at all, and also clean up our amazing oceans.

For the adidas Manchester Marathon 2023 we have had 1638 entrants opt out of receiving a finisher tee and 769 runners opt out of receiving a medal and a finisher t-shirt.

The Ocean Cleanup

Founded in 2013, The Ocean Cleanup was founded by 18-year old Dutchman Boyan Slat who was shocked by the amount of plastic he saw when scuba diving in Greece. Researching the plastic pollution problem, including the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Boyan held a TedX talk about how to rid the world’s oceans of plastic using technology, which ended up going viral and leading Boyan to drop out of school and found the movement. The team currently consists of 120 engineers, researchers, scientists, computational modelers, and supporting roles, working daily to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.

After many years of research, development, testing, and iteration, The Ocean Cleanup now has technologies to intercept plastic in rivers before it reaches the ocean (plastic flowing in rivers accounts for 80% of plastic in the ocean), and technologies to remove the plastic that is already out there—debris that has been building up for decades. Their creation of ‘interceptor’ machines, are 100% solar-powered and can extract plastic autonomously. The harvested plastic is then brought back to shore for recycling. Their very first product – The Ocean Cleanup Sunglasses (€199) – has been made using the catch of the ocean System 001/B aka “Wilson” in 2019. The revenue helps fund their ongoing cleanup efforts.

At adidas Manchester Marathon, funds from our Green Runner initiative will go towards helping The Ocean Cleanup reach their goal of a 90% reduction of floating ocean plastic by 2040. By choosing to be a Green Runner you (just you!) can make an impact on the state of the oceans and rivers worldwide.

Why have we introduced this?

Firstly, you asked, we delivered! We have received feedback from many of our previous runners that whilst they love the sentimentality of a finisher t-shirt, the truth simply is that many don’t wear them once they get home and they get thrown away after a few months. Often we find at the end of our events that many runners refuse to take their t-shirt because they know they won’t wear them – therefore we want to spare the wastage where we possibly can.

ReRun, a community interest company founded with the purpose of prolonging the life of running clothes and equipment, have these astounding facts:

Every year it is estimated that 300,000 tonnes of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK. That’s the equivalent of 544,311,000 Olympic gold medals being chucked away.
Currently over 5% of the UKs total annual carbon and water footprints result from clothing consumption. Extending the average life of clothes by 3 months would result in a 5 to 10 % reduction of their carbon, water and waste footprints, extending the life by 9 months would result in a 20 to 30 % reduction.
In the average UK household nearly a third of clothes haven’t been worn in the last year. That’s over £1000 per household, £30 billion of unused clothes in the UK.
60% of runners have more than 10 race t-shirts, and these amount to 60 – 65% of all unwanted clothes received by Re-run.
Whilst we know this doesn’t apply to all of you, and we do love receiving the pictures of you out on your training runs in your Manchester Marathon tees, we want to show our commitment by offering those who do not want the t-shirt a different option.

Our approach has always been to reduce, re-use and recycle wherever possible, we realise that there are many different aspects to be worked on and improved over time which we will endeavour to do so.