The Marathon Project

Spectators at The Marathon Project can observe marathoners 12 times from a single location, demonstrating the race's compact and accessible design. This flat, fast marathon weekend takes place at the Rawhide Events Center in Chandler, Arizona, featuring a limited-field amateur race, a professional marathon, and a 5K. The amateur field receives treatment typically reserved for elites, including personal bottle placement on course, indoor warm-up facilities, a start-area bag drop, and pace groups ranging from 2:20:00 to 3:30:00. The course is designed as a criterium-style loop, allowing runners to benefit from continuous crowd support and enabling spectators to follow the event without relocating. Created by sports agent Josh Cox and distance coach Ben Rosario, an early edition provided 100 international athletes with a unique in-person marathon opportunity during the pandemic, incorporating USA Track and Field safety protocols, two negative COVID tests, an on-site survey, and a race-morning temperature screening. Recent results indicate the competitive level: 2:09:18 for the men's professional race, 2:25:17 for the women's professional race, and 2:38:34 for the non-binary Gold Wave marathon.