Nairobi Marathon 2027

Line up the winners of the biggest marathons on the planet in a single photo and you’ll get, more or less, a Kenyan yearbook 🇰🇪. The Nairobi City Marathon sets up its start arch in the heart of Nairobi, a capital nicknamed the « Green City Under the Sun » ✨. Every June, the city trades its legendary traffic jams for a sea of bibs and celebrates running on one of the most coveted stretches of asphalt in East Africa. 🏃 A young shoot on the international calendar, the race is climbing the ranks at the speed of a Kenyan charging downhill and drops you straight into the world cradle of the marathon 🏃.

It all began in 2022, under the name « Uhuru Classic » 🙂. For its baptism, the organizers pulled off quite a PR coup: letting participants run on the brand-new Nairobi Expressway, before a single car had even put a tire on it 🛞. A first of its kind in East and Central Africa, it immediately drew close to 10,000 runners—and even the country’s First Lady for the discovery format 💡. Since then, the event has strung together annual editions and grown before your eyes. This event proves that an idea born as a simple dream can put down roots in just a few seasons 🌱.

The course traditionally gets underway from Nyayo Stadium before heading onto the Expressway, which serves up a sweeping view over the whole metropolis 🏙️. Smooth as can be, this flat route lets the legs do the talking and the times fly ⚡️. It’s pure manna from heaven for personal-best hunters! Runners then dive into the city center, parading along Kenyatta Avenue and Moi Avenue, where the crowd concentrates its decibels 📣. The marathon shares the bill with a half marathon, a 10K on the Expressway, and a family 5K—enough to delight both time chasers and Sunday runners 🥇.

As for the honors list, the event doesn’t do things halfway! 🤓 In July 2025, Benson Tunyo Murkomen covered the 42.195 km in 2h08"36', while Emily Chepkemoi crossed the line in 2h22"45'—two homegrown benchmarks that wiped out the previous year’s marks 🔥. Participation is climbing the same slope: 10,000 bibs at launch, then 13,000, 15,000, and 17,000 registered for 2026, all sold out well before the gun ☄️. Even more telling, runners show up from 75 countries, from China to Ethiopia, Japan or Great Britain 🇬🇧.

The race also nurtures a proudly claimed green streak. 🌍 Under the banner « Going Green », the organizers weave partnerships with several environmental institutions and set up air-quality sensors at key points along the course. These actions help remind us that running and taking care of the planet go hand in hand ♻️. The atmosphere, meanwhile, swings between sporting fervor and a street-party vibe: laid-back families on the 5K, world elites on the prowl, and a theme renewed every year 🎶. You run as much to test your legs as to sign a love letter to the local asphalt 📍.

Once the finisher medal is around your neck, Nairobi unfolds landscapes with no transition 🦓. Nicknamed the « Safari Capital of the World », the city is home to Nairobi National Park, the only reserve in the world where lions and giraffes pose with skyscrapers in the background 😲. And for those with heavy legs, a plate of nyama choma, the national grilled meat, washed down with a Kenyan coffee renowned all the way to the other side of the planet will be just the ticket ☕.

Between a course fast as lightning and a country that produces the best runners on the globe, the Nairobi City Marathon leaves you with one certainty: here, nobody eases off 🙂.