La Valette Marathon

There are people who go to Malta for the beach 🏖️ and the festive vibe. Others for its history. Today it’s through a completely different lens. 🌊

Malta is officially the ninth smallest country in the world 🌍. This doesn’t stop it from having been coveted, invaded, defended and rebuilt by almost everyone for 7 000 years : Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Knights Hospitaller, French, British... All have passed through. None left indifferent. You won’t leave indifferent either, but for different reasons, including 42 km along the Mediterranean 😄.

The Valletta Marathon has existed since 2022only, which makes it a young race set against scenery that’s thousands of years old: and it’s precisely this paradox that makes it unique 🏛️. Held every March by the team Corsa, it is today the only marathon and half-marathon on the island certified by AIMS 📏, and above all the only Maltese event qualifying for the World Marathon Majors, the circuit that brings together Boston, New York, Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo and London 🌍. This status draws runners from dozens of nationalities each year who travel specifically to secure a qualifying time under conditions that clearly work in their favor: 11°C to 18°C in March, often clear skies, sea breeze, a near-flat coastal course 🌤️. Malta clearly found its winter vocation 👑.

Six formats coexist : the full marathon (42,195 km) for the die-hards, the half-marathon (21.1 km) for the pragmatic, the 10 km, the 5 km, a 4x relay on the half course, and the Walkathon of 21.1 km for those who decided that the Mediterranean is best enjoyed at a walking pace 🚶. Each format has its own start: San Pawl il-Baħar for the marathon, Sliema for the semi, La Valette for the 10 km, Paola for the 5 km, but all converge to the same finish line 🏁 inside the Fort Saint Angelo at Birgu 🏰. A paid shuttle ensures the return from Birgu to the departure zones, because at this time of day, even the bravest prefer the bus 😅.

The marathon route runs along the sea, from east to west across the island—from the Mediterranean to the left to Maltese monuments on the right 🌊. We pass golden limestone cliffs, coves, fishing villages 🎣 and fortifications that have seen entire empires come and go 🛡️. The profile is mostly flat with a few hilly sections, nothing to fear, everything worth watching 👀. We pass the Fort Saint-Elme, built in 1488 by the Knights and famous for resisting a full month of Ottoman assaults during the Great Siege of 1565. The finish line is inside the Fort Saint Angelo in Birgu, where the Grand Master Jean de Valette personally commanded the island’s defense during this siege ⚔️. It’s the only race in the world whose finish has, in another life, stopped a military invasion 🪖.

This man deserves a moment of attention 👑. At 70 years, he commands around 6 000 defenders (knights, mercenaries, Maltese militiamen) facing a fleet of more than 200 galleys and about 35 000 soldiers of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The siege lasts three and a half months, before the Ottomans lift the camp, leaving about 30 000 deaths on the field. The victory is regarded by historians as one of the major turning points of the 16th-century Mediterranean history. The following year, Valletta lays the foundation stone of a new city founded, inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage since 1980 and European Capital of Culture in 2018 🏛️. The capital of a country of 316 km² that changed the course of European history. It’s in this city that you’ll go running.

Once the medal is around your neck, Malta takes over effortlessly 😋. The pastizzi, cheese pastries or pea-filled, a few cents in any bar at any hour, are the island’s unofficial fuel ⛽️. The fenek moqli, garlic and white wine fried rabbit, statistically the Maltese’ favorite dish as they are the biggest rabbit consumers per capita in Europe, a fact that answers no question we asked, but is fascinating 🐇. And the co-cathedral Saint John of Valetta houses two Caravaggios, of which the only painting the artist ever signed in his own name 🎨. The Ġgantija Temples date back to 3 600 BCE, older than Stonehenge, older than the pyramids 🪨.

Registrations are exclusively done on the marathon site 💻. Simple but effective ✨.

The medal is beautiful. It doesn’t make up for the aches, but it makes up for it. 😄