Initial era The inaugural Dubai Marathon was held on . The marathon started outside the Al Wasl Club, and ended inside the Al Wasl Stadium. About 150 runners participated, with 48 of them finishing the race. The
Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) has no record of a marathon occurring in Dubai in 1999. The event changed management in 1999 for the first edition of the event officially measured and moved to January 2000 with no event in 1999 moving for better weather conditions when the IAAF Officially Measured route was measured by Grade A Course Measurer, Paul Hodgson and became a fully recognised edition for results from 2000 when held starting and finishing outside the Al Wasl Club in Dubai on Friday, January 14, 2000.
Current era The 2000 edition of the marathon was held on ; the event has usually been held on a Friday in January since. In 2006, the marathon was postponed from to due to the sudden death of
Sheikh Maktoum,
Emir of Dubai, on . The postponement meant that temperatures were higher than usual during the race, approaching . Winner was originally only meant to pace the first , but broke away from the pack once race organizers gave approval. In April 2007, it was announced that the prizes for the 2008 race would be one million dollars offered for a world record and $250,000 for first place for both men and women, making this the long-distance running event with the greatest cash prizes in history. The 2008 race was won by
Haile Gebrselassie with a time of 2:04:53. This was the second fastest recorded time for a marathon at that point, not fast enough to claim a world record or the million dollar prize. The 2012 race proved to have one of the fastest finishing fields at that point: a record of four athletes finished in under two hours and five minutes.
Ayele Abshero won with a course record time of 2:04:23 hours, which was the fourth fastest on the all-time lists and the fastest time ever run by an athlete running his first marathon. The other podium finishers also entered the all-time top ten: runner-up
Dino Sefir became the eighth fastest man with a time of 2:04:50 hours, while
Markos Geneti became the ninth fastest with a time of 2:04:54 hours.
Getaneh Molla became the 13th fastest man with a time of 2:04:56 hours, and
Tadese Tola became the 16th fastest with a time of 2:05:10 hours. The women's side was also fast; for the first time in history, the top three runners of a race all finished in under two hours and twenty minutes.
Aselefech Mergia finished with a time of 2:19:31 hours to win, setting an both a course record and an
Ethiopian record and becoming the seventh fastest recorded woman. In her first marathon, runner-up
Lucy Wangui Kabuu became the eighth fastest woman with a time of 2:19:34 hours, and
Mare Dibaba became the 15th fastest woman, finishing in 2:19:52 hours. Fellow Ethiopians
Bezunesh Bekele and
Aberu Kebede moved up to the 16th and 17th fastest women of all time. In 2020, the race organizers stated that they would "not be staging a marathon/mass participation event of any format in Dubai in January 2021" due to the
coronavirus pandemic. The 2022 edition of the race was postponed to due to the
2022 FIFA World Cup hosted by
Qatar, after marathon organizers realized that a shortage of accommodation in Qatar would mean that many football fans were planning to stay in Dubai during the football tournament, limiting accommodation and travel options for marathoners if the race were to be held during the tournament. == Course ==