These 200 Inclusive Road Races Allow Nonbinary Runners

When I first created this post, 9 states banned trans youth from participating in team sports. Now, 29 states have laws or regulations that block transgender youth from team sport participating, according to Movement Advancement Project. Young people are the primary target of sports bans: high school and college athletes. While sports bans can have a devastating impact in many ways – from fewer opportunities to have fun to greater anxiety and lower self-esteem from scapegoating and targeting – adult sports remain fairly open to nonbinary and trans athletes.

What began as a trickle of races that accept nonbinary registrants boomed to over 200 competitive races when I wrote this post. Now, there are over 350 races, from some of the most competitive marathons you could dream of running to local 5Ks and fun runs everywhere.

Read on for a list of US and international marathons that accept nonbinary runners to add to your LGBTQ travel plans, plus some context on why inclusion of nonbinary athletes is so important.

Overhead shot of a group of nonbinary runners in a road race.

These Marathons Accept Nonbinary Runners

These 200 competitive races allow runners to participate without using binary identification as a barrier to entry:

Anchorage Mayor’s Marathon
Flagstaff Marathon
Colorado Springs Marathon
Hartford Marathon
Philadelphia Marathon
Pittsburgh Marathon
Miami Marathon
Brooklyn Marathon & Half Marathon
New York City Marathon
Boston Marathon
Ocean State Rhode Races
Newport Rhode Races
London Marathon
Maine Marathon
Ann Arbor Marathon
Berlin Marathon
Chicago Marathon
Kalamazoo Marathon
San Francisco Marathon
Portland Marathon
Twin Cities Marathon
Salt Lake City Marathon
Seattle Marathon
Missoula Marathon
Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon
Vermont City Marathon (Burlington, VT)

It isn’t just marathons that have X gender categories. Many smaller races do as well – including races that are qualifiers for major marathons.

Conquer the Canyon Marathon (Ansonia, PA)
Run for the Elk Marathon (Emporium, PA)
Pocono Mountain Marathon Race Festival
James River Canoe Marathon (Buchanan, VA)
Rivanna Greenbelt Marathon (Charlottesville, VA)
Richmond Marathon (Richmond, VA)
Shamrock Marathon (Virginia Beach, VA)
Cheyenne Marathon (Cheyenne, WY)
Bizz Johnson Marathon (Lassen County, CA)
Paiute Meadows Trail Run (Lassen County CA)

Here’s a full database of races that accept nonbinary runners, from marathons and epic trail runs to 5Ks, to bookmark for your LGBTQ travel planning.

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Three runners run up a hill in the woods.

Why Inclusion Matters

It’s exciting to see so many races accept nonbinary runners. Especially famous races, like the Boston Marathon.

Why is it important to accept nonbinary runners?

Enforcing binary gender identification as a rite of participation means that nonbinary and gender expansive athletes can either check a box that does not represent them in order to run or skip the race altogether.

Athletes have accepted the misgendering as the cost of participating in their favorite sport for years, because they had no other choice. It was either enter as the sex you were born with or don’t run at all.

Runners say it’s dysphoric to be asked to identify as male or female for the sake of a race. Some nonbinary athletes say they feel like an imposter, or out of place among other participants. Even when they win, the award can be invalidating.

Accepting the gender variance that exists and accommodating nonbinary entrants is a major win for all of us. And while it’s amazing for athletes who can now enter some of the most competitive races in the world, what warms my heart are all the small runs that created X gender categories.

Now, runners at every level can enter a race feeling affirmed and supported in their right to participate without compromising themselves. And race organizers, watchers and fellow athletes can witness the joy that comes with giving people permission to be themselves.

Want to know if a race near you allows people to register as X in addition to M and F?

Contact the race director or check their website. Some races have inclusion statements that let LGBTQIA athletes know they are welcome to take part, like this welcome statement for runners of color and LGBTQ+ athletes from Bizz Running Company.

Black person with cropped hair wearing sports clothes, relaxing on the grass.

Behind Running’s Embrace of Nonbinary Runners

Ryan Callahan, co-race director for the Philadelphia Distance Run, told Runner’s World that, while there was support for non binary inclusion among the running community, “most race directors and organizers just throw their hands up and say, ‘it’s too complicated.’”

So how did running change its mind? And what does the inclusion of gender expansive athletes mean in a sport where age and gender race times have historically been used to determine who qualifies for the most competitive races?

The running community has long supported transgender runners, allowing them to register as the gender they identify with. But until recently, registration forms still used only male and female gender markers.

With running, the move for inclusion came from trans and nonbinary athletes asking race organizers to create categories for them. Each time a race director said yes and created policies for nonbinary inclusion, it paved the way for the next organizer to agree.

For marathons that want to be inclusive, expanding gender options at registration is the easy part. Racers have to qualify using times, which are tethered to age and gender categories.

Since nonbinary inclusion is new, races don’t have data on entry times for nonbinary runners. One approach is to use women’s qualifying times for nonbinary runners, since these times are more generous. That’s how the Boston Marathon is accommodating non-binary runners. This is seen as a temporary move, until they can gather enough data to set qualifying times for the non-binary group.

It’s encouraging to see running find ways to include nonbinary athletes at times when other adult sports like swimming are doubling down on the gender binary to exclude athletes who fall outside of it, and when youth sports are clinging to gender essentialist arguments to exclude trans kids.

Based on their experience lobbying for nonbinary inclusion in races, nonbinary runner Jake Fedorowski has put together a guide for race organizers who want to add a nonbinary category.

Ultimately, this is only the beginning of nonbinary inclusion in sports. There’s a long ways to go in terms of standardizing entrance times, performing outreach to athletes, and making the culture changes to support inclusion. For nonbinary athletes, these changes are welcome and more is needed.

Still, it’s nice to celebrate some good news on LGBTQ inclusion. And since many athletes love traveling for their favorite sport, every race that supports inclusion is a new opportunity to take a bucket list trip.

Are you a race organizer or race director with an inclusive run I should know about? Contact me and I’ll add your inclusive event to this list!