Kildare Thoroughbred Run Marathon

Course Map

Route based on 2025 course — may differ from the 2026 race.

Course Details

Course type

Loop

Elevation gain

256m

Elevation loss

256m

Highest point

100m

Lowest point

80m

Net drop

0m

Start

Tully Road

About this Race

The Kildare Thoroughbred Run Marathon is a flat, double-loop road race through the heartland of Irish thoroughbred racing culture, starting and finishing on Tully Road in Kildare Town and making two full circuits of a course that takes every runner — regardless of distance — through the manicured grounds of the Irish National Stud, running on the same hallowed turf where some of the world's most celebrated racehorses have been bred and trained. The marathon course follows two loops of the half marathon route, which itself traces a circuit outward through the quiet agricultural roads of Kildare's Curragh plain before returning through the stud farms that define the area's identity and back into the town square. It is unambiguously and deliberately a PB-hunting course — the terrain is as close to billiard-table flat as Irish road running gets, with minimal cumulative elevation change across the entire 42.2 kilometres, and the mid-June timing on Father's Day offers some of Ireland's longest and warmest racing conditions of the year. Rolling wave starts based on predicted finish time manage the field and reduce congestion at key pinch points including the National Stud gates, where bibs must be worn for entry. The event is locked to Father's Day each year and is embedded in the wider Derby festival atmosphere of Kildare Town, with a post-race Runners Picnic in Market Square adding a community celebration to what is otherwise a performance-focused race. Entry is through general sale and the event sells out reliably every year. It perfectly suits runners targeting a late-spring or early-summer personal best who want something with more character and setting than a city road race, and who are happy to trade mountain scenery for the particular pleasure of running past stables, paddocks, and the quiet prestige of Ireland's most famous equestrian landscape.

Mostly due to tough late hills.

How we calculate difficulty →

Race History

The Kildare Thoroughbred Run was established in 2014 by Kildare Town Sports Partners, a local organising group rooted in the town, with a founding concept built explicitly around the unique character of Kildare as Ireland's thoroughbred capital. The event was designed from the beginning to coincide with the start of the Derby Festival on the Curragh — Ireland's most prestigious flat racing fixture, held at the Curragh Racecourse on the same June weekend — so that the Thoroughbred Run sits within a wider atmosphere of equestrian celebration that defines Kildare town each year on that date. Kildare's identity as the thoroughbred county is deeply embedded: the Irish National Stud, through which every race in the event passes, was founded in 1900 by Colonel Hall Walker and has been the backbone of Ireland's bloodstock industry for over a century, and the county hosts three racecourses and contains more stud farms per square kilometre than anywhere else in the country. Running through the National Stud grounds is not merely a course highlight — it is the organising concept of the entire event, threading runners through the same manicured land where champion horses are bred and trained, and requiring official bib checks at the Stud gates for insurance and access reasons. The event celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023 and has sold out every year for the majority of its history, growing from a modest local race to a four-distance card — 5K, 10K, half marathon, and full marathon — served by a post-race Runners Picnic in Market Square that reinforces the community and celebratory character the organisers have maintained from the first edition.

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