The Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Running Series holds a marathon,

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish, or shortcu ...

, 10K and 5K annually in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. Tempe, Arizona, the end destination of every race, is the first location for the Rock'n'Roll Tour completed every year. The company visits a wide variety of American cities and holds races at every one. On the weekend before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the marathon and half-marathon courses links three cities of the

Phoenix Metropolitan Area The Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, metro Phoenix, or The Valley, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the Southwestern United States, with its largest principal city being the c ...

: Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe. Until 2023, a full

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

distance race was offered whose time could be used to obtain a qualifying time for the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by eight cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was ins ...

. The competition attracts tens of thousands of runners each year; more than 32,000 competed in 2010. The prize money for winning either the men's or the women's marathon race was

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1,000. Like the original Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, it is organized by the IRONMAN Group, part of Wanda Sports Holdings. It was sponsored until 2015 by P. F. Chang's China Bistro.

History

The race was first held on , with 9,882 marathon finishers and 13,926 half marathon finishers in the inaugural event. The 2021 edition of the race was cancelled due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

World record

The event is noted for the half-marathon world record set by

Haile Gebrselassie Haile Gebrselassie (; born 18 April 1973) is an Ethiopian former Long-distance running, long-distance track running, track, road running athlete, and businessman. He won two Olympic gold medals and four World Athletics Championships, World Cha ...

on January 15, 2006, who ran the second half of the marathon course in 58 minutes and 55 seconds. This part of the marathon course is slightly downhill, but is still within

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

requirements for world record status. Gebrselassie's record stood for a year, until it was lowered by two seconds on February 9, 2007 by

Samuel Wanjiru Samuel Kamau Wanjiru (10 November 1986 – 15 May 2011) was a Kenyan long-distance runner who won the 2008 Beijing Olympics Marathon in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32; becoming the first Kenyan to win the Olympic gold in the marathon. He beca ...

Ras al-Khaimah Ras Al Khaimah (; ), often referred to its initials RAK, is the largest city and capital of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the U.A.E. The city had a population of 191,753 in 2025, and is the sixth-most populous city in UAE after Dubai, Abu ...

Course

In prior years, both race courses started in Phoenix, however, in 2012 the courses were split. The start of the marathon is located in downtown Phoenix near the CityScape Plaza. The half marathon and newly added 10k start in Tempe. All races finish in the city of Tempe at the Tempe Beach Park. The event also includes wheelchair races starting 10 minutes and 5 minutes before the marathon and half-marathon races. The average start line temperature is around 40 °F (4 °C), and the average daily high temperature is between 50 °F and 70 °F (10 °C-21 °C). Along the route are over 40 high school cheerleading teams and 70 bands who perform for the runners. Later in the evening there is a concert held in Tempe for all the runners, volunteers and spectators.

Race records

Simon Bairu set a new men's race record for the half marathon, on January 17, 2010, with a time of 1 hour, 2 minutes, 47 seconds which was well under the previous race record of 1 hour, 4 minutes, 35 seconds set by the late Ryan Shay in 2004. Deena Kastor set a new women's race record for the half marathon, also on January 17, 2010, with a time of 1 hour, 9 minutes, 43 seconds which also broke the state record.

Winners

Key: Course record (in bold)

Marathon

Half marathon

Wheelchair race

References

External links

Official website of the Rock n' Roll Arizona Marathon

Marathon route
{{RNR Series Recurring sporting events established in 2004 Marathons in the United States Sports in Phoenix, Arizona