Drone Videos of Running and Marathons

For those who find 26 mile marathons too daunting, 10k races provide a great alternative.  Especially when they are situated in places where the scenery is as spectacular as you'll see in this video.  Contributor Stevenmconroy used a drone to film a 10 km (6 mi) race near San Luis Obispo, on the state's Central Coast.  As you'll see in the video, he was able to aerially film the participants as they run from Morro Rock to finish at Cayucos Pier.

Color Runs can be thought of as a cross between marathons and Holi Festivals.  They are 5 km (3 mi) races where the participants get covered in brilliant colored powder, which is made of biodegradable corn starch.  They are deemed the "Happiest 5,000 Meters on the Planet" by the company which organizes them, and it's probably no exaggeration.  In this video, Claboo Media uses a drone to film a Color Run in Mamaia, a city on Romania's Black Sea near the port of Constanta.  

Given the Greek origins of marathons, it's no surprise that they are regular events there.  In this video, contributor Aerial_Rizikianos used a drone to film the 29th Athens Marathon, the country's most prominent run.  As you might imagine, the notion of this being the 29th run does not count the historical run which started it all: the 26 mile covered by the messenger in 490 BC to let the people of Athens know that their city-state had decisively (and surprisingly) defeated the Persian army under King Darius I at the Battle of Marathon. 

Contributor High Flying Runner was one of the first runners to realize the power of drones to record running sessions, even in hilly and varied terrains.  His videos cover thousands of km of trailrunning in the USA.  In this video, he uses his DJI Mavic Air drone for the first time.  He is a big fan of DJI's Active Track technology, which allows its drones to track a moving object (in this case, a runner) with no input from the pilot.  

Twin Cities Marathon covers a route which begins in Minneapolis, Minnesota and ends in next door St. Paul, the "twin city" to Minneapolis.  Held in the early Fall, it is considered one of the country's top 10 marathons.  While the course has varied at times, it always includes downtown Minneapolis, the city's interconnected chain of lakes, and a finish line at the state Capitol building near downtown St. Paul.  Contributor Tyler Mason used a drone to film portions of this race in 2017, its 35th running.  

The Istanbul Marathon is the world's only footrace which begins in one continent and ends in another.  The 26 mile course begins on the city's Asian side, crosses the First Bosphorus Bridge to the European side, passes several of Istanbul's great landmarks, and finishes at İnönü Stadium.  Contributor Omer Gokcen used a drone to aerially film some of the races's estimated 50k participants as they crossed from Asia to Europe.

In this video by drone pilot rodolfofalcon, you'll take an aerial trek up to the rocky, mountainous hills of Tenteniguada in Spain's Canary Islands to see this literal trailblazer bounding through the challenging terrain.  The exhilarating aerial views of this intense trail run will have you on the edge of your seat, and possibly thinking of the Canaries for your next vacation adventure.  Tenteniguada lies on the island of Gran Canaria, the third-largest of the Canaries by land area and the second-largest by population.

The first half marathon to take place in Belgrade, Serbia was held in the middle of a winter blizzard.  Contributor First Production was able to get his drone in the air to capture this event from a bird's eye perspective.  By following the course of the race, you'll get a great aerial tour of the great capital city.  Situated on the banks of the Danube River, Belgrade has a metropolitan population of about 1.7 million.  It's the largest city in Serbia and one of the largest in the entire Balkan region of Southeastern Europe.

Reinis Vilnis is one of the top drone pilots in Latvia. In this video, he brings us an aerial view of the Riga Marathon, the country's premiere marathon and one of the fastest growing in northern Europe.  The race starts and ends at Riga Castle, probably the most well known landmark in the country's capital city.  It's officially called the Lattelecom Riga Marathon in reference to its sponsor, one of the country's top telecommunications and media companies.  

The Mexico City Marathon has been running since 1983, and has increasingly become an international competition. The race begins at the Benito Juárez Hemicycle monument on the Alameda Central Park, runs along the Paseo de la Reforma and past the Torre Mayor (twice) before heading west on the Avenida de los Insurgentes to the finish line at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario. In this drone video by Normal Mexican Guy, you'll get a bird's eye view of the race along the Avenida de los Insurgentes.

Prepare to be amazed by the drone footage of a famous mountain race in Southern Russia.  It's called the Elbrus Race, and (as the name suggests) it's a race to the top of Mt. Elbrus, which has a peak elevation of about 4.75k meters (about 18.5k ft.) and is part of the Caucasus range.  The race draws on a Russian-Soviet tradition of timed ascents to the peak, which is not only the highest in Russia but is the highest peak in Europe.  The race, which recently had its tenth anniversary, is held in early August.  

The 2019 Hong Kong protests are an ongoing series of demonstrations that started with an extradition bill, but have turned into a general pro-democracy movement. Although not explicitly attached, the 11.1 Run for Hong Kong, seen in this aerial video by pilot Edinz, was a race with hundreds of runners protesting the increasing demand by police that running events need to be approved or could be considered an illegal assembly. Read more about the run and the landmarks seen in this video in Edinz's description below.