Cologne Marathon

The Cologne Marathon (Köln-Marathon) is an annual marathon held in Cologne, Germany. Since October 1997 the marathon has been held annually in early October, except for 2004, 2005 and 2014 when it was held in late September.

History
The inaugural race took place on 1997.10.05 as the "Ford Cologne Marathon" (Ford Köln-Marathon) with at least 13,000 registered runners, a world record for inaugural marathons at the time.

The 2020 in-person edition of the race was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, with all registrants given the option of obtaining a refund (minus an administration fee).

Course
Since 2013 the course starts at Ottoplatz in Deutz and leads the runners through the city of Cologne and finishes at Komödienstraße beneath the Cologne Cathedral.

The marathon time limit is 6 hours.



Events and categories
From the beginning there has also been a contest for inline skaters. They start ahead of the runners and try to finish the course in the time limit for skaters, which is 2:30 hours. This competition as well as all others including inline skates were ultimately held in 2013.

Since 1998 there has also been a contest for handcyclists.

In the last years it has been more and more difficult to utilize the starting field because of diverse interests. To countervail, the management of the marathon created new events and contests, which all take place at the same course on the same day.

Here is a list of all competitions:
 * Marathon – 42.195 km
 * Half marathon – 21.0975 km
 * Inline marathon – for skaters
 * Handcyclist marathon
 * Run 63 km – a full marathon plus a half marathon
 * Run&Skate 63 km – first run a half marathon and afterwards skate a complete marathon
 * Run&Skate 84 km – first skate, and then run with the peloton
 * 105 km of Cologne – run 21 km (half marathon), skate 42 km, run 42 km
 * School Relay – schools may set up their own relay teams, the handover is at fixed points
 * Cultural Relay – any group of people that is committed to any kind of cultural activity (e.g. carnival groups), may set up relay teams (again with fixed handovers). These teams are often dressed up specially.

Winners


Key: Course record (in bold)