My marathons

Ladakh Marathon

The organiser has not published a date. Ladakh
Leh
© OpenStreetMap Leh. Photograph by Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons . Course line © OpenStreetMap contributors

The course

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A steep drop to km 6, then a climb of 166 m home.

Start, finish

© OpenStreetMap contributors

  1. Photo: Michael Day, CC BY 2.0
  2. Photo: Beefy SAFC, Public domain

km 3.3mile 2.1

Choglamsar

The organiser's route description takes the Leh-Manali highway down to the settlement of Choglamsar and turns right toward the Choglamsar bridge with its prayer flags.

Photo: Michael Day, CC BY 2.0

Height drawn many times taller than life. Heights: GEDTM30.

Course elevation profile, 8× vertical exaggeration Elevation along the course from km 0 to km 42. The trace runs between 3218 and 3384 metres, a range of 166 metres, drawn at 8 times vertical exaggeration so the shape is legible. Smoothed over 1 km before this profile was derived. An unsmoothed urban surface carries the buildings and would assert a climb that is not there. The dashed stretches are bridge decks: (unnamed span), km 20.6 to 20.6. A bare-earth model reads the ground or the water beneath a bridge, not the deck the runner is on, so those runs are interpolated between the ground either side rather than measured, and they under-report the real climb across a span.
0 10 20 30 40 km
0 10 20 26.2 mi

Dashed: bridge

  • steep drop to 6
  • climb home

Your 5 gels, at the orange marksFor a 4:00 finish, one every 40 minutes

  1. km 7mile 4.4
  2. km 14.1mile 8.7
  3. km 21.1mile 13.1
  4. km 28.1mile 17.5
  5. km 35.2mile 21.8

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The course in short 3 lines
  • Down 162 metres to the Indus, then 161 metres back upEverything is above 3,200 m, and the finish is the highest point.
  • Choglamsar, Stakna and Shey on the way back to LehPrayer-flag bridge, a monastery on a tiger-shaped rock, and a long final incline.
  • A 6:00 start, a 6:45 limit and a qualifying time to enterHigh-altitude entry rules: a recent marathon under 6 hours, and runners aged 18 or over.
Course notes 3 short reads on the course
km 0 to 42.2GradientDown 162 metres to the Indus, then 161 metres back upEverything is above 3,200 m, and the finish is the highest point.

Leh sits above 3,300 m and the whole marathon is run between 3,218 m and 3,384 m. The first 6.4 km run downhill from the start at 3,380 m to the lowest point, 3,218 m, near Choglamsar. The course then rolls along the Indus valley and turns back toward Leh. From 35.1 km, where it is at 3,222 m, it climbs 161 m over the last 7.1 km to the finish, the highest point of the course at 3,384 m.

Altogether the course climbs 243 m. A watch on the day will count more small rises than this.

Measured

km 0 to 42.2LandmarkChoglamsar, Stakna and Shey on the way back to LehPrayer-flag bridge, a monastery on a tiger-shaped rock, and a long final incline.

From the NDS Memorial Stadium the route follows the Leh-Manali highway past the ITBP camp to Choglamsar, a steady downhill, and turns right over the Choglamsar bridge with its prayer flags. It then takes the Chushot road with the Stok range on the right and the Indus on the left, turns left at 11.8 km toward Stakna, where the monastery sits on a rock shaped like a leaping tiger, and crosses the Stakna bridge to rejoin the highway at the half-way point. The next 10 km pass Thiksey monastery and the Shey Palace, and the final 6 km are described as the challenging part of the race, a long steady incline to the finish.

Sourced

km 0 to 42.2TacticsA 6:00 start, a 6:45 limit and a qualifying time to enterHigh-altitude entry rules: a recent marathon under 6 hours, and runners aged 18 or over.

For the 13th edition on Sunday 13 September 2026 the marathon went off at 06:00 from the NDS Memorial Stadium in Leh, with a cut-off at 12:45. The roads were closed at 1:15 p.m. Entrants had to be 18 or older on race day and show either one marathon under 6 hours since 1 January 2025 or two half marathons under 3 hours, with at least one of them after that date. The organiser calls it a tough race at high altitude for runners who have trained for several months.

Sourced

Race fuel

Energy gel
An energy gel sachet
Illustration · drag to turn

5 gels for Ladakh, plus 1 spare

Finish

One every 40 minutes, the orange marks on the profile, by the clock:

  1. km 7mile 4.4
  2. km 14.1mile 8.7
  3. km 21.1mile 13.1
  4. km 28.1mile 17.5
  5. km 35.2mile 21.8

Our pick: SiS BETA Fuel gel, box of 6, strawberry and lime. 40 g of carbohydrate a gel, about twice a usual gel, from two kinds of sugar your body takes up side by side.

Easy to forget on race morning: pack them with your bib the night before.

Get it on Amazon

We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.

In Canada the button opens GU Energy Gel, Salted Caramel, 24-pack, the best seller there.

Outside the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the UK and Ireland, Spain and Portugal, Italy, the rest of the EU and Canada the button opens GU Energy Gel, Chocolate Outrage, 24-pack on Amazon.com, the best seller there.

Anti-chafe
Compeed Anti-blister stick
Photo: Compeed

Compeed

Compeed anti-blister stick, 8 ml

Best selling on Amazon amazon.nl, read 2 Nov

An invisible layer before the start keeps seams, straps and shoes from rubbing skin raw.

Put it on before you leave for the start: heels and toes, inner thighs, under a bra or heart-rate strap.

Try it on a long run first, like everything you use on race day.

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We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.

Number belt
A race number belt
Illustration · drag to turn

Compressport Race Belt

Holds your bib without safety pins through your top, with loops for up to 8 gels.

Clip the bib on the night before, so it goes on with your shorts in the morning.

Keep the number on the front, where officials and photographers can see it.

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We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.

Electrolytes
A tube of electrolyte tablets
Illustration · drag to turn

SiS Hydro electrolyte tablets, tube of 20

One tablet in a bottle puts back some of the salt you sweat out.

One tablet in 500 ml of water in the hour before the start.

Only if you have used them in training: nothing new on race day.

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We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.

Blister plasters
Compeed Blister plasters, medium, 6
Photo: Compeed

Compeed

Compeed blister plasters, medium, 6

Best selling on Amazon amazon.nl, read 2 Nov

One in a pocket cushions a blister if one starts.

Put it on clean, dry skin and leave it until it comes off by itself.

Give a couple to whoever comes to cheer, so they are there at the km you need them.

Get it on Amazon

We earn a small fee if you buy through these links. The price is the same.
distance
42.2 km26.2 mi
climb
243.1 m798 ft

The Ladakh Marathon is a hilly course of 42.2 km with 243.1 m of climbing. Its lowest point is 3,218 m and its highest 3,384 m above sea level.

Trip

Getting a place

Entry through the organiser

Entry details on the organiser’s site →

The organiser, a third party. We take no entries and have no part in the race.

Sources and licence

Last checked.

Course line matched onto OpenStreetMap road geometry: (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License 1.0 (ODbL). Elevation sampled from GEDTM30, Global Ensemble Digital Terrain Model at 30 m (v1.2): Elevation: GEDTM30 (Ho & Hengl, OpenGeoHub), CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Elevation gain computed by us from that line, smoothed over 1 kmsmoothed over 0.6 mi.

The line follows the road down its middle, so it measures 0.34% longer than the certified distance, which is measured on the shortest legal line through every bend.

Date and entry information from the organiser.

Every source and licence behind them →

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