With the explosive growth of marathon events in China, research reveals that the marathon “boom” manifests in continuous expansion and innovation across event quantity, content, participant numbers, and formats. This phenomenon stems from the synergy between national fitness initiatives and the sports industry, the imbalance between public fitness demand and public services, the decentralization of event approval authority, and the low barrier to entry and high participation rate of marathon running. However, these events face challenges including performance-driven governance, low lottery win rates, strong administrative dependency, significant safety risks, and weak cultural development and marketing. To address these issues, the following strategies are proposed: legally refine event management systems; implement government procurement of public services; guide social forces in organizing events; improve support systems; strengthen knowledge dissemination and popularization; promote balanced development across multiple sectors; and build distinctive event brands.

Yang Bai, Xiaolin Zhang, Xueting Zhang. Reasons and Strategies for Marathon Race Fever under the National Fitness Strategy. Frontiers in Sport Research (2025), Vol. 7, Issue 6: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSR.2025.070601.

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