Best Of guides

Southeast Asia's marathon season clusters hard into the cooler months: the calendar thins through the middle of the year, then fills sharply from August onward as organisers move away from the worst of the heat. What you're choosing between spans city centre races through Manila, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, island courses in Bohol and Phuket, and provincial events that draw a few hundred runners. Most pair the 42.195km distance with shorter legs at the same start line, so a marathon weekend is usually a full-distance event rather than a single race.

Thailand's full marathons run from big-city road races in Bangkok and Chiang Mai out to provincial events in Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen and Songkhla that most visitors never hear about. The calendar leans heavily on the November-to-February window, when the northeast monsoon has passed and mornings are genuinely cool by regional standards. Fields vary enormously in size, and several of these are AIMS-certified courses, which matters if you're chasing a qualifying time rather than a weekend away.

The half marathon is the region's default distance, and the range reflects that: everything from major-city races with tens of thousands of entrants to small municipal runs where the 21.1km is the longest thing on offer. Coverage is heaviest in the Philippines and Malaysia, with strong showings in Indonesia and Thailand. Because most events stack 21.1km alongside 10K and 5K legs at the same venue, a half marathon here is usually one option within a larger race day rather than a standalone event.