Edinburgh Marathon Festival
The Edinburgh Marathon Festival is one of the UK’s most significant mass-participation running events and a flagship on Scotland’s sporting calendar.
Video by STV News
While the Festival launched in 2003, Edinburgh’s association with marathon running goes back further. The city hosted several marathon races during the 1980s, typically as standalone events with varying routes and organisers. These earlier marathons showed Edinburgh’s suitability as a host city but lacked the continuity, scale, and unified identity needed for a permanent annual event.
The key moment came in 2003 with the creation of a professionally managed, branded marathon, designed as a recurring event with national and international appeal. In 2008, the concept expanded into a full festival format, adding the half-marathon, 10K, 5K, relay, and junior races. This shift transformed the marathon from a single-day, elite or club-focused race into an inclusive weekend event that attracted runners of all abilities, from first-timers to experienced athletes.
Participation has grown steadily as a result. In recent years, the EMF has attracted around 30,000 runners across all events, with many more spectators along the route. By participant numbers, it is now widely regarded as the second-largest marathon event in the UK, behind only the London Marathon. Its reputation is strengthened by the course itself: a largely flat, fast route starting in Edinburgh and heading east through East Lothian to a finish in Musselburgh, making it especially popular with runners chasing personal bests.
Taken together, the event’s history shows both continuity and change. The marathons of the 1980s established Edinburgh as a credible marathon city, while the 2003 launch of the Festival created the structure, scale, and longevity that earlier events lacked. Today, the EMF is Scotland’s premier marathon event, combining sporting ambition, mass participation, and a strong sense of place in a way few UK races can match.