The Guwahati Marathon 2026: Complete Runner’s Guide

Two Marathons, One City: Make Sure You Have the Right Race

If you searched for a marathon in Guwahati and are not entirely sure which event you landed on, you are not alone. There are two separately organised marathons running under very similar names in the city right now. They share no organisational connection and happen on completely different dates.

Why The Guwahati Marathon Is Worth Your November

Not every great race needs a crore-plus prize purse and a celebrity launch. The Guwahati Marathon started in February 2024 with 2,500 runners and a simple idea: give Northeast India a proper community marathon. Two editions later, it has drawn runners from 22 states, earned AIMS certification and quietly become one of the more honest running events on the Indian calendar. There are no gimmicks. Just a well-organised race in a city that genuinely comes out to support its runners.

Edition III moves to November for the first time, which is actually a smart calendar call. Late November in Guwahati sits in the post-monsoon dry window — warm enough to feel alive, cool enough at race start to run well. The city’s running community has been building steadily across three years and the energy at the finish line of a race where the organiser knows most of the runners by name is something you simply do not get at a 50,000-person mega-event.

This is the race for runners who want to run Guwahati, experience the Northeast and feel like a participant rather than a bib number. If you are chasing a specific time for a qualification or want to watch elite Kenyans sprint to a ₹1.25 crore finish line, the Guwahati International Marathon in February is the one. But if you want a well-run, AIMS-certified course, a genuine community atmosphere and a reason to spend a long weekend discovering one of India’s most underrated cities, the November race is worth the flight.

Race at a Glance

Registration: Fees, Tiers and How to Sign Up

Registrations are open via theguwahatimarathon.com using Townscript as the booking platform. The launch offer (30% off regular prices) was valid till July 31, 2026 and has closed. The standard pricing tier is now live. A mid-tier pricing window between standard and race-week rates may open closer to November — check the official site for updates.

What Makes The Guwahati Marathon Worth Running

It Is the Race That Built Northeast India’s Running Culture

Before Paper Mache launched this event in 2024, Guwahati had smaller institutional runs and the IIT Guwahati Half Marathon — but nothing that functioned as a proper city-wide mass participation marathon. The Guwahati Marathon changed that. The growth from 2,500 to 4,500 runners between Edition I and Edition II is not a marketing number; it represents real people from 22 states deciding that this race was worth travelling for. That is the proof of concept. Edition III inherits a community that already exists.

AIMS Certified From Edition II

The AIMS certification is significant for two reasons. First, it validates your time — if you run a qualifying time here, it counts. Second, it says something about the organisational seriousness of Paper Mache. Most community marathons spend years getting to certification. The Guwahati Marathon had it by year two. That calibre of commitment to doing things properly shows up in the race-day experience as well.

November Is the Right Month for This Race

The first two editions ran in February, which is fine. But November 29 is actually a better call for a community race that wants to grow its field. It sits outside the shadow of Mumbai Marathon in January and Delhi Half Marathon in November’s earlier window, giving it cleaner calendar space. Post-monsoon Guwahati in late November is warm and energetic — the kind of morning where the city feels switched on. For runners building toward a winter season PR or looking for a strong training race ahead of Mumbai, this is a useful slot on the calendar.

A Race That Knows Its Runners by Name

There is a specific kind of race atmosphere that only exists at events below a certain size, where the race director is visible on the course, volunteers are enthusiastic rather than exhausted and the finish line feels genuinely celebratory rather than industrial. The Guwahati Marathon still operates in that range. Runner testimonials from previous editions consistently mention crowd energy, course support and the warmth of the Guwahati running community as defining features. That is hard to manufacture and easy to lose as events scale up.

The Northeast Is a Reward in Itself

Most Indian runners have not properly explored the Northeast. A race weekend in Guwahati in late November — with the monsoon gone, the city clear and Kamakhya Temple, the Brahmaputra ghats and Kaziranga day trips all in reach — is one of the more complete travel-plus-race experiences available on the Indian calendar. ATDC’s involvement with the Guwahati International Marathon next February shows that Assam is actively building its sports tourism infrastructure; that rising tide lifts all Guwahati races including this one.

The Course: What We Know and What Is TBC

What the Course Typically Looks Like in Guwahati

The previous editions used Sarusajai Stadium as the hub, running out through Guwahati’s main road network. The city sits on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra along a relatively flat valley corridor, which means an AIMS-certified city marathon here will almost always be a flat to gently rolling tarmac course — no serious climbs, no trail sections. This is good news for pace management. The challenge in Guwahati is not elevation; it is managing the late-race warmth as morning temperatures rise and staying mentally strong on an out-and-back or loop course where the road looks similar for several kilometres at a stretch.

The Late-Race Warmth Factor

November 29 is late enough in the year to avoid monsoon heat but early enough that by 9–10am, temperatures climb into the 22–26°C range. For full marathoners who start at 5:30–6am and finish in 4–5 hours, the final 10–12km will be running in noticeably warmer conditions than the opening. This is the course-specific challenge that does not appear on any elevation chart. Managing hydration from km 25 onward is more important at this race than at a February edition would be.

What to Watch For When the Route Is Published

When Paper Mache releases the Edition III route map, check for: the turnaround point on the full marathon (this is where many runners mentally check out if the course feels monotonous), any bridge crossings (Guwahati has road bridges where a gradient appears without warning on an otherwise flat profile) and the distance between aid stations in the back half of the course. These three factors will shape your pacing plan more than anything else on this route.

Race Strategy: Running The Guwahati Marathon Well

Race Weekend Schedule

Expo and Bib Collection

Weather in Guwahati — What to Expect in Late November

Late November is a comfortable time to run in Guwahati. The monsoon is well and truly over, the air is clear and the mornings have a pleasant crispness that makes race starts feel good. The watch-out is the mid-morning temperature rise — not dramatic, but enough to matter for full marathoners who will still be on course by 9–10am.

Prize Money and Elite Information

Prize money details for Edition III have not been published as of September 2026. The categories page on the official site notes that prize money details will be updated soon. We will update this section when confirmed.

Past Results: Edition II Champions

The Guwahati Marathon has two completed editions. Edition II results from February 9, 2025 are confirmed via Runizen timing. Edition I results from February 2024 are not yet surfaced in our research — we will update if they become available.

Edition II — February 9, 2025 · Full Marathon

Spectator Guide: Where to Watch in Guwahati

The Guwahati Marathon has a track record of good crowd support from local residents and run club communities. With the race venue not yet confirmed for Edition III, the viewing spot guidance below will be updated once the route map is published. The principles hold regardless of the specific course.

Where to Stay for Race Weekend

Guwahati’s hotel market is compact but improving. For a November 29 Saturday race, book at least 6–8 weeks out — November is a good travel month for the Northeast and hotel inventory at the mid-range and above will not be abundant. The race venue for Edition III is TBC; if it returns to Sarusajai Stadium, the Sixmile and Zoo Road corridor areas are the most practical zones.

Getting to Guwahati

A Short History: How Guwahati Built Its Marathon From the Ground Up

The Guwahati Marathon was not a government announcement or a corporate launch. It was a website that went live in August 2023 — Paper Mache Pvt Ltd, a Guwahati-based sports management company, quietly building toward something. IASOWA came in as title sponsor two months later and by February 2024, the first edition ran with 2,500 participants from 21 states. For a debut community marathon in a city that had no recent template for this kind of event, that was a meaningful number.

Edition II in February 2025 added AIMS certification — making this Assam’s first internationally certified full marathon — and grew to 4,500 runners from 22 states. The press coverage from that edition was the kind that builds organic word of mouth: race reports from runners who were not expecting much and found something they wanted to come back to. The Assam Tribune and The Sentinel both covered it as a milestone for the state’s fitness culture, which in turn brought in the next wave of first-time entrants.

Edition III’s decision to move from February to November marks the race’s first real calendar pivot. It is a confident move — organisers would only shift their timing window if they were sure their community would follow. The fact that registrations opened and the response was immediate suggests that confidence is well-placed. The longer question is what happens to the Guwahati Marathon’s identity as the Guwahati International Marathon builds up its profile in the February window that the community race vacated. The two events target genuinely different audiences right now, but in a few years, Guwahati will be in the unusual position of being a city with two serious AIMS-certified marathons. Not many Indian cities can say that.

How The Guwahati Marathon Compares