Geoffrey Kamworor won here as a rising talent in 2013. This February, after a motorbike accident and years of injury, the Kenyan returned to Al Marjan Island and ran 40 seconds quicker. His story helps explain why the world's best – and thousands of everyday runners – keep heading to the UAE for a fast half-marathon.

By the time Geoffrey Kamworor reached 14km of the 2026 Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon, he says, he knew he was going to win. He was right. The leading pack went through 10km in 27:42, and the Kenyan pulled clear of Bahrain's Birhanu Balew and fellow Kenyan Gideon Rono at about 15km, passed in 41:25. He broke the tape in 58:14 on February 14, nine seconds ahead of Balew and 40 seconds quicker than when he first won on the same roads in 2013.

It was a victory 13 years in the making – and a hard-earned one. Kamworor, 33, is a three-time world half-marathon champion, but in 2020 a motorbike hit him from behind while he was training, fracturing his tibia and keeping him out for six months. Further injuries followed and it took him more than three years to run properly again.

“I'm just grateful to be back running without problems,” he said the day before the race.

He was not the only one to go fast. Five men broke 59:00 in all, with Balew's 58:23 an Asian record, while Rono (58:38), Jemal Mekonen (58:55) and Samwel Masai (58:59) completed the group. In the women's race, Asmarech Anley, 21, won on her half-marathon debut in 1:07:22 with no pacemaker, five seconds clear of fellow Ethiopian Melknat Wudu. Tanzania's Magdalena Shauri, who led much of the way, was third.

Built for speed

The recipe is simple. Al Marjan Island is a man-made archipelago stretching into the Arabian Gulf, so the roads are at sea level, flat and closed to traffic. The course is designed with as few sharp turns and changes of elevation as possible. Tim Hutchings, the former international runner who has worked at the race for most of its history, has called the circuit “dead-flat”.

Organisers keep tinkering. Ahead of the 2024 edition, race director Peter Connerton said a revised route, drawn up with the promoters of the Dubai Marathon, was faster than any used before, with some of the sharp turns cut out. The revamp also added a 10km race for the first time.

The event has grown with it. Hutchings put the field at almost 2500 in 2018, up from a few hundred starters in the early years. A record 10,595 people took part across the 2km, 5km, 10km and half-marathon races in 2025, whereas AW reported 11,000 in 2026. AW has long billed it as a bucket-list race for road runners in search of a PB.

Cool mornings, but watch the wind

Then there is the weather. The 2026 elite races started at 6.15am in conditions of 14C, while the 2022 race, which started at 7am, was described by AW as perfect. Early starts mean runners are finished before the Gulf day warms up.

The one variable is the breeze. In 2023 a headwind and humidity ruled out record attempts, with Ethiopia's Gotytom Gebreslase saying it was “too much for the record”. Two years later the morning was an unusually cool 12C, but strong winds blunted Ejgayehu Taye's world record attempt. She had even brought her own pacemaker, yet won in 1:05:52 – exactly three minutes outside her target. “The wind was too strong,” she said afterwards. Strong winds off the Gulf also cost fast times in 2009 and 2012.

A history of records

The race announced itself in its first edition. In February 2007, Sammy Wanjiru, 20, won in 58:53 in a field the IAAF described as one of the strongest assembled, drawn by record prize money of $155,000. It was reported at the time as a world record but was never ratified because no EPO test was taken. Five weeks later he ran 58:33 in The Hague – and that time was ratified.

The women's record has been rewritten here three times. Mary Keitany ran 1:05:50 in 2011, Peres Jepchirchir 1:05:06 in 2017 and Ababel Yeshaneh 1:04:31 in 2020. Yeshaneh took 20 seconds off the previous mark and beat Brigid Kosgei, the marathon world record-holder, who also finished inside the old record.

The 2022 edition remains the high-water mark. Jacob Kiplimo won in a course record of 57:56 after dropping his pacemaker just before 5km, passing 15km in 40:43 on the way to a 15km world best. The top six all finished inside the previous course record of 58:42. Girmawit Gebrzihair won the women's race on her half-marathon debut in a course record of 1:04:14, with Hellen Obiri a PB 1:04:22 behind in second. Britain's Eilish McColgan, sixth in 66:26, broke Paula Radcliffe's 21-year-old British record of 66:47.

Both course records still stand. Kamworor was 18 seconds shy of Kiplimo's mark in February, while Anley finished more than three minutes outside Gebrzihair's time and Taye was 1:38 away in 2025.

Still the fastest?

The record books have also moved on. Letesenbet Gidey ran her world record of 1:02:52 in Valencia in 2021, the same year Kiplimo ran 57:31 in Lisbon, and Ras Al Khaimah has not staged a world record since Yeshaneh's in 2020. By one measure, Valencia has the deeper fields: Watch Athletics calculated the 2022 men's top 10 at Ras Al Khaimah averaged 58:35, second only to Valencia, while the women's average of 1:04:47 was the best of any half-marathon in history.

Yet the race's pull has not weakened, and the reason is as much about the people who use it as the records. Elite runners such as Kamworor treat it as a springboard. The Kenyan told AW in February that the win gave him confidence for his London Marathon build-up and that he wants a marathon podium at the LA 2028 Olympics. Club runners enjoy the same flat roads, the same cool air and the same finish line, on the same morning.

The 20th edition takes place on January 30, 2027, and details are on the race's official website. If the weather behaves, someone may finally beat Kiplimo's 57:56 or Gebrzihair's 1:04:14.