Connemara International Marathon

The Connemara International Marathon (or connemarathon) is a day of racing around a very scenic part of the West of Ireland.

Comprising of a Half Marathon, a Full Marathon and a 39.3 mile Ultra Marathon all taking place on the one day in late March or early April. The 2009 event attracted was a  sell-out and 2010 registration has already opened

The key to the event's success has been its ability to offer a unique package of experience. The popular sport of long-distance running is transformed for runners and walkers in the dramatic setting of mountains, glacier lakes, rugged green-brown landscape which winds in and around the challenging mountain wilderness of Galway in the west of Ireland. The course meanders past bogs, hills, lakes, and the Twelve Pin mountains rising up over the great expanse of Killary Lough, through the quiet village of Leenane, around the Maam Turk Mountains and all the way back up to Maam Cross.

International participants enjoy the Irish welcome, the sense of comradeship on the lonely route and unmistakeable buzz throughout the day. No other sporting event sends people away with such a taste of Ireland and all its highlights.

The addidtion of the 39 mile Ultra marathon launched in 2004 proved to be an enormous sucess. Ultra distance running is growing in popularity throughout the world on a scale not seen since the marathon boom in the early eighties. The Connemara Ultra Marathon is Ireland’s only on-road ultra Marathon and there is in fact only one other Ultra event in the country.