So many many amazing marathons, so little time.

Around this time last year, I ticked off one of the marathons in my bucket list, the Polar Circle Marathon in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.

For a girl in the tropics who never ran through ice or snow, it was, for me, the ultimate challenge. Temperature on race day was -12C.

We ran through smoky ice caps, endless snow, frozen rivers and lakes, the second largest ice sheet glacier in the world, and wilderness with occasional caraboos and muskox.

It was also my first time to run with crampons or snow spikes and to rappel on a mound of ice. Heck, it was also the first time I entertained thoughts of backing out.

I’m glad I did not and, to this day, it still is my most epic and memorable race.

Now that it’s nearly year-end, many runners are already planning next year’s races. There is no better time indeed to run a few more of those dream races one’s been yearning to do.

Not having done a marathon in the Middle East, I am setting my eyes on the Dubai Marathon this January.

I was initially hesitant because of the heat, but since it is happening in the second week of January, their coldest month of the year, it shouldn’t be so bad. The race route is an out and back loop along the Jumeirah Beach Road with stunning views of the Palm Jumeirah and Burj Al Arab. Having never gone anywhere in the region, it would be a great opportunity to explore Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The Comrades Marathon is another dream race happening in South Africa between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg in June. It is said to be the world’s oldest and largest ultramarathon race with a distance of 88 kilometers and a cut off time of 12 hours.

The Comrades was run for the first time on 24 May 1921.

It was the idea of World War I veteran Vic Clapham, to commemorate the South African soldiers killed during the war. Clapham endured a 2,700-kilometer route march through sweltering German East Africa. He wanted the memorial to be a unique test of the physical endurance of the entrants.

It may not be true that it is the only man made structure that can be seen from the moon but the Great Wall of China is still one of the marvels of ancient engineering. It is ordinarily teeming with tourists but on one day in May, it is closed off for the annual Great Wall Marathon.

The course has 20,518 countable steps throughout varied terrain along the length of the race. Runners will traverse the Gubeikou and Jinshanling sections of the Great Wall allowing runners the opportunity to see both older unrestored and newly restored sections of the Great Wall.

Finally, the Athens Classic Marathon takes runners to where it all began.

As we know, the marathon race originated in Ancient Greece.

Pheidippides, a messenger of the Greek army, ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greeks’ victory over the Persians. It is said that Pheidippides Dropped dead after arriving in Athens.

It is touted as one of the most difficult marathon races. The course is uphill from the 10-km mark to the 31-km mark, the toughest uphill climb of any major marathon. The race finishes at the historic Panathinaiko Stadium, a site for athletics competitions in ancient times and the finishing point for both the 1896 and 2004 Olympic marathons.

There is much more running to look forward to.