Gaza Marathon

Gaza Marathon
Date	May
Location	Gaza Strip
Event type	Road
Distance	Marathon
Established	2011
Course records	Men: 2:42:47 (2011) Nader al-Masri Women: 4:45:00 (2011) Gemma Connell
Official site	The UNRWA Gaza Marathon 2011

The first ever Gaza marathon, sponsored by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), was held on May 5th, 2011.

Course and conditions

The race’s course spans the entire Gaza Strip, from Beit Hanoun near the order with Israel in the north-east to Rafah, near the Egyptian border in the south. From Beit Hanoun, runners turn westward, toward the Mediterranean sea coast, and then run south-west, parallel to the coast, to Rafah. The course is mostly flat but conditions in May tend to be hot.

Organizers had to ensure the runners' security, provided by Hamas security forces, with the race coming only three weeks after an Italian activist was kidnapped and subsequently murdered by Islamist militants. There were also concerns about male and female athletes running side-by-side, which the Islamist authorities object to.

2011 Race

About fifty runners started the course, with just nine runners completing the full distance. Of these, seven were Palestinian athletes training for next year's Olympics. Six more ran the half marathon, and 150 runners from the Gaza Athletics Federation joined for the last stretch of eight kilometers. The winner, with a time of 2:42:47, was Nader al-Masri, who competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 5,000-meter race, placing 38th and not advancing. There were two international participants, both of them UNRWA employees running a marathon for the first time. One of them, Gemma Connell, was the only woman who ran the entire race. She finished with a time of 4 hours and forty-five minutes.

UNRWA sponsored the event as a fund-raiser for its Summer Games for Gaza school children. The goal was to raise one million US dollars for the Summer Games, and UNRWA has said the goal was exceeded.