If you think that your last race was overcrowded, imagine yourself taking part in a running event together with another 100,000 people! We here take a look at history’s largest races around the world.
Various distance races
In the top of the list, we find “A Run for the Pasig River” that was held in Manila, The Philippines, on October 10, 2010. A massive 160,000 runners registered for this event, out of which 116,086 finished the race. Run for the Pasig River was certified by The Guinness World Records as having the most participants in a racing event on December 26, 2010. It should be noted, though, that this event included multiple categories and as such, the number of participants per category was diluted.
In terms of a single-category race, the “Bay to Breakers” race that was held on May 18, 1986 in San Francisco, California holds the record of most participation with 110,000 runners.
The largest Marathon
Unsurprisingly the record comes from one of the world’s most famous marathon, that of New York City Marathon, and specifically, its 2016 edition. Early morning on Sunday the 6th of November 2016, 51,388 runners crossed the finishing line, an amazing percentage out of 51,995 people who started.
The top 10 largest Running Events
| Position | Race Name | Location | Date | Distances | Participation* |
| 1 | A Run for the Pasig River | Manila, Philippines | 10 October 2010 | 10 km, 5 km, 3 km | 116,086 |
| 2 | Bay to Breakers | San Francisco, California, United States | 18 May 1986 | 12 km | 110,000 |
| 3 | Cursa El Corte Ingles | Barcelona, Spain | 5 June 1994 | 11 km | 109,457 |
| 4 | Broloppet | Malmö / Copenhagen, Sweden / Denmark, | 12 June 2000 | Half-Marathon | 92,266, 79,837 |
| 5 | City2Surf | Sydney, Australia | 14 August 2011 | 14 km | 86,696, 68,930 |
| 6 | Dam tot Damloop | Amsterdam, The Netherlands | 20 September 2009 | 10 miles, 4 miles and kids runs | 74,020 |
| 7 | Hong Kong Marathon | Hong Kong, Hong Kong | 15 January 2015 | Marathon, half-marathon, 10 km, 10 km wheelchair race, 3 km wheelchair race | 73,070 |
| 8 | Round the Bays | Auckland, New Zealand | 10 March 2013 | 8.4 km | 70,000 |
| 9 | Lilac Bloomsday Run | Spokane, Washington, United States | 5 May 1996 | 12 km | 61,298 |
| 10 | United We Run | Beirut, Lebanon | 10 April 2005 | 5 km, | 60,000 |
* bold indicates number of race registrants, and italics the number of race finishers
** “Kahit Isang Araw Lang Unity Run” (Just For A Day: Unity Run) was a running event held in The Philippines on January 22, 2012 that reportedly had over 300,000 participants. That would bring it to the top of the list, however, the event was spread to different venues and there is no proper documentation.
Sources: Wikipedia.org
Will.there be one this year 2018 ? I would love to run it for a cause to clean up the Pasig River ?