Eden Marathon and Half Marathon

View a route map of the 2021 Marathon and the Half Marathon.

The course is a hilly, multi-terrain route, with the Marathon being roughly 70% on trails, paths and private roads and 30% on public roads. The Half-Marathon is 60% on public roads and 40% on trails and paths.

Get a taster of the course with these photos by Terry Wyatt and Mike Wright and video footage on Helman Tor by Terry Wyatt. 

For those doing the Half-Marathon the off-road surfaces are generally good underfoot and specialist off-road shoes are not necessary. For those on the Marathon the surface is varied and could be wet and muddy, hence trail shoes would be recommended.

The route will be marked with direction signs and marshals will be posted at various locations.

You can get an idea of the races by looking at the results from 2021:

• Marathon results
• Half Marathon results

Find out more about cut-off times for the Marathon in the section further down this page, marked 'On the day'.

To take part in the Marathon you must be 18 on or before the event date; for the Half Marathon you must be 17 on or before the event date. There is no upper age limit!

Not at all. If you are you’ll get a discounted entry fee, but it’s not necessary.

As a club runner you can enter as a team; there are four runners to each team. Simply mention which club you're part of when you register and we'll allocate you to your team.

When you register for either race you receive a confirmation email from the Eden Team via FR Systems. If you can’t find this, please check your junk mail folder in case it has ended up in there. If you’re stuck, please email eden@frsystems.co.uk

You are entitled to cancel your entry and receive a full refund of the fee, provided we receive written notice of cancellation within seven days of payment of the fee, as outlined in the terms and conditions. To do this please email eden@frsystems.co.uk or write to the Eden Project Marathon Event Administration, FR Systems Ltd, Unit 11, Evolution, Hooters Hall Road, Newcastle, Staffordshire, ST5 9QF. No refunds will be allowed after this seven-day cooling-off period.

Refund protection is available when you enter the event. We recommend you include this option in order to get a refund of the entry price if you are unable to run.

Read our Terms and Conditions for more information.

Sorry, as stated in our Terms and Conditions of Entry, we do not operate a deferment system, so we regret it is not possible to defer your entry to another year.

Sorry, as stated in our Terms and Conditions, we are unable to offer any transfer of places for this event. Please be aware that using another competitor’s number will lead to disqualification.

Yes. For the 2022 Marathon, if you need to transfer your place before 30 September 2022. You can do this through the marathon booking site. From 1 October 2022, please simply let us know on the day of the event itself and we can help you transfer races. You will not be entitled to any refund of the full Marathon entry fee.

Yes, it's possible to transfer to the Marathon until 30 September 2022 – unless all places have already been filled. You can do this through the marathon booking site. You will need to pay the additional entry fee for the Marathon.

If you change your email or postal address, please do let us know so we can keep in touch in the lead-up to the event, including sending your race number (with embedded timing chip). To do this, visit the Marathon booking site and log in with the details provided in the email that accompanied your booking confirmation.

St Austell Running Club, which hosts the Marathon with us, suggests the following training:

A general Marathon training plan can be adapted to suit a multi terrain marathon like Eden. The normal requirements of building speed, strength and stamina are all relevant. When contemplating a multi terrain event like Eden, more of the training runs should be done off road to get the legs and ankles used to coping with uneven surfaces.

Introduce more hill repetitions to improve leg strength. We tend to find that this course takes something 20 to 30 minutes longer than a road marathon, so having the stamina to keep going that bit longer is important, so maybe add a few extra miles to a road training plan long run. The longest training runs should be about 20 miles, maybe going up to 22, as long as you can recover from the long runs to continue with the midweek training.

Yes, great idea. Many people run our races to raise money for a cause. We’d recommend you set up a JustGiving page to help you raise awareness and collect funds online. If you'd like to raise money for the Eden Project to help us continue delivering our transformational projects, sign up to JustGiving through our Eden Project portal.

If you live in the UK, we’ll send you your race number (with embedded timing chip) by post in early October 2022. If you are travelling from overseas you will need to collect your race number from the Visitor Centre at Eden Project. These will be available from Saturday 15 October 2022.

To reduce our environmental impact, we don't mail out our race packs. You'll receive an email with a link to download before the race.

If your email or postal address changes in the meantime, please update this by logging in to the Marathon booking site. 

Download our COVID safety guidance.

The Marathon starts at 9.30am and the Half Marathon starts at 10am. In your runners’ pack (available nearer the date) there are detailed instructions about what time to arrive for your race.

We have a strict cut-off time for the Marathon of five and a half hours. We have also set up interim cut-off times to ensure that runners make it around the course in a safe and timely way.

If you do not reach the seven-mile mark within one and a half hours you will be diverted to the Half Marathon course. You will receive a Half Marathon medal at the finish but will not be eligible for category positions in the Half Marathon.

If you do not reach the mile 13 (Lanlivery) within two hours 55 minutes, and mile 17 (Luxulyan) within three hours 30 minutes, you will not be allowed to complete the course and will be transported back to Eden. You will not be eligible for a medal but you will of course receive your pasty and pint.

There is no cut-off for the Half Marathon.

You bet – every three miles, approximately. And we're cutting down on single-plastic use by providing non-plastic recyclable cups at these water stations. There are also taps around the Eden Project site, where runners can fill their own water bottles before and after the race.

There’ll also be isotonic drinks at certain points: at mile 7 on the Half Marathon route, and at miles 7, 14 and 21 on the Marathon.

This year we're drastically reducing single-use plastic at the event by not handing out water in plastic bottles or single-use plastic cups. We're using non-plastic recyclable cups instead. We're also encouraging runners to bring their own water bottle, which can be filled before and after the race from taps around the Eden Project. By doing this, we calcuate that we save around 2,500 plastic water bottles and 15,000 plastic cups each year.

Yes, there will be a baggage storage area where runners can leave their bag (one per runner) at their own risk. We do ask that you refrain from bringing large amounts of cash or valuables. There is a secure area for small personal items.

No, unfortunately we don’t have any shower facilities.

To comply with UKA regulations we do not permit the wearing of headphones or similar devices (other than those medically prescribed). This includes earphones which use bone technology. Any runner reported wearing headphones during the race will be disqualified.

Look out for the admissions voucher in your race pack (in October 2022), which entitles them to visit Eden during the day, as well as view the finish and prize ceremony.

Every runner will receive a pasty, a beer and every finisher a medal.

Cash prizes for race winners and a bottle of wine for category winners:

For the Marathon:

• 1st male (£250); 1st female (£250)
• 1st male veteran 40, 45, 50, 55, 60+
• 1st female veteran 40, 45, 50, 55, 60+
• 1st 3 male team (4 in a team)
• 1st 3 female team (4 in a team)

For the Half Marathon:

• 1st male (£200); 1st female (£200)
• 1st male veteran 40, 45, 50, 55, 60+
• 1st female veteran 40, 45, 50, 55, 60+
• 1st 3 male team (4 in a team)
• 1st 3 female team (4 in a team)

We’ll get in touch with the full results.

We’ll also invite you to explore a graphical display of your race day achievement on the RunPix website. There, you can enter your bib number or surname and choose either Marathon or Half Marathon on the drop down, and you'll be able to see your average speed and compare yourself with others.