Uppsala Marathon

Location: Uppsala
Country: Sweden
Website: https://www.uppsalamarathon.se/
2025 Marathon Date: 18/10/2025
2026 Marathon Date: TBC
Winning Time 2025: 02:20:30
% Sub-3s: 5–10%
# Sub-3s: 100–499
Total Runners: 1k–3k

The Uppsala Marathon offers a distinctly Scandinavian marathon experience — calm, clean, and quietly beautiful. Sweden’s academic heart runs this race with the understated confidence you’d expect from a city steeped in history and scholarship. Think wide avenues, riverside paths, stately architecture, and soft light settling across parks and historic buildings. Uppsala doesn’t shout; it flows.

The course is a single loop, which gives the race a sense of journey rather than repetition. It begins in the centre of the city, moves through leafy districts and university quarters, takes runners out into more open countryside stretches, and then guides them back toward the cathedral-dominated skyline. Terrain is gentle: small undulations, long straights, and a route that rewards athletes who like to stay tucked into cadence. There are no brutal climbs, but the need to stay mentally present across quieter suburban and green segments is real — a marathon for focus, not fireworks.

Mid-October in Sweden typically brings crisp air and cool stability, ideal for distance running. Temperatures help keep effort honest early and efficient late, provided athletes layer sensibly at the start. Wind can flicker across open sections, but rarely enough to define a race. Hydration and fueling stations are frequent and well organised, reflecting Sweden’s reputation for orderly, athlete-centred event delivery.

Crowd support mirrors the city’s personality — warm, polite, and present in exactly the right moments. You won’t get wall-to-wall noise here; instead, you get meaningful encouragement at central sectors, thoughtful clapping in neighbourhood arcs, and long comfortable stretches to lock into rhythm and breathe. For runners who thrive on composure and solitude, it’s a gift.

Uppsala rewards the sub-3 athlete who races maturely. It’s a place to run even splits, not chase a dramatic swing. The strongest performances tend to come from those who relax early, respect the open sections, and begin to press only when the city reappears and the skyline draws you back home. It is a marathon that feels honest and earned — a quiet northern race where training shows, pacing matters, and the finish arrives with a sense of calm accomplishment.