IKEA Marathon
🏃♂️ 42 km
🌍 INT
The race takes place on December 13, 2027, at an IKEA store in Croydon, England.
The race is, unsurprisingly, a world first. The course is fully inside, taking in the aisles, tills, and warehouse. Each lap is believed to be about 1.5 kilometers, requiring marathoners to complete roughly 17 loops.
The race is the brainchild of Jay McCardle, race director and co-founder of Sussex Trail Events. “I approached IKEA with the idea,” he told Runner’s World UK. “We’ve done several similar things before. We did a multi-story car park in Worthing in 2017 and Southend in 2026. Seven levels, up and down. We’ve done races on Southend Pier; races in Shepton Mallet Prison.”
As McCardle pointed out, IKEA does have a particular advantage when it comes to route planning. “It has the arrows on the floor. I thought, ‘Well, I don’t even need to mark this!’
“We’re currently working on the T-shirt and the medal, which I want to be self-assembly and come with instructions.”
The nutrition will also be typically IKEA. “They won’t open the canteen but we’re looking at having meatballs at the aid station,” said McCardle. “If not that, we might give a bag of meatballs to every finisher, but that’s yet to be confirmed.”
The race is, unsurprisingly, a world first. The course is fully inside, taking in the aisles, tills, and warehouse. Each lap is believed to be about 1.5 kilometers, requiring marathoners to complete roughly 17 loops.
The race is the brainchild of Jay McCardle, race director and co-founder of Sussex Trail Events. “I approached IKEA with the idea,” he told Runner’s World UK. “We’ve done several similar things before. We did a multi-story car park in Worthing in 2017 and Southend in 2026. Seven levels, up and down. We’ve done races on Southend Pier; races in Shepton Mallet Prison.”
As McCardle pointed out, IKEA does have a particular advantage when it comes to route planning. “It has the arrows on the floor. I thought, ‘Well, I don’t even need to mark this!’
“We’re currently working on the T-shirt and the medal, which I want to be self-assembly and come with instructions.”
The nutrition will also be typically IKEA. “They won’t open the canteen but we’re looking at having meatballs at the aid station,” said McCardle. “If not that, we might give a bag of meatballs to every finisher, but that’s yet to be confirmed.”