The Best Sites for Finding Road Races and Other Running Events

Participating in road races and other running events has been steadily increasing since the pandemic. Based in RunSing up data and some other sources, about 8 million people in the United States ran at least one organized road race last year. 

Finding a road race to participate in, however, can be a bit of a mess. The ‘race finder’ industry is quite disaggregated. In Great Runs’ opinion, there aren’t any one or two sites that feature the combination of comprehensive listings and a clean, easy user experience. 

In this article, we detail the most significant running event finder sites, with our evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses. 

Types of Running Race Finder Sites

In our assessment, there are three main categories of sites for finding running events:

• Large, general purpose sites. These are the ones that have the most comprehensive listings across a broad geographic area. These sites focus on larger events, but might miss the dozens of neighborhood 5Ks that happen in a big city on any given weekend. Examples are RaceRaves and RunGuides.
• Local oriented sites. These are sites that are very focused on a particular city or region, and are often the best way to find the ‘neighborhood 5k’ happening on a particular weekend. Local running stores and running clubs are often the source of these listings.
• Specialty race finder sites. These are sites that focus on particular types of races, such as marathons, half-marathons, ultras, or trail running events. 

Evaluating The Most Significant Race Finder Sites

Here, we discuss some of the leading broad-based race finder sites, with an evaluation of their particular strengths and weaknesses. 

RaceRaves. Lists more than 10,000 races, across many types of categories. Mainly focused on listings in the United States. A key differentiator is that the races feature ratings and reviews by participants. 

• Strengths: Comprehensive listings. Features reviews and ratings by participants. Decent UI. 
• Weaknesses: Only listings in the U.S. Sponsored events are promoted on the site. 

RunGuides. Comprehensive listings. More focused on particular locations.

• Strengths: Better than RaceRaves on local listings. Cool map shows location of race. Also lists local run clubs. 
• Weaknesses: Mainly North America. Harder to distinguish major vs. minor events. Filters don’t always work great.

Find a Race. Newer kid on the block. Thousands of listings across multiple geographies.

• Strengths: Large number of listings. Many geographies. Multiple types of events in addition to running (i.e. cycling, swimming). 
• Weaknesses: Search function can be tricky. Less curated than many of the other race finder sites. 

Running in the USA. Largest online directory of races and clubs. Has been around for a long time! 

• Strengths: Large event listing. More of a ‘by runners for runners’ type of feel. 
• Weaknesses: UI and search function can be challenging. Site design is very old school. USA listings only. 

RunSignUp. The largest registration platform for endurance events also lists races. They power some 30,000 events annually. 

• Strengths: Integration with signup, with lots of tools for race organizers.  
• Weaknesses: Events listed are mainly those they power. 

Ahotu.  The best site for finding events internationally, with 60k events across 194 countries. 

• Strengths: International listings. Multiple types of events. Partnerships with Strava, Garmin. 
• Weaknesses: Hard to do more localized search. And listings aren’t that comprehensive.  

Some Favorite Specialty Race Finding Sites

Here are a few of our favorite sites for finding specific types of events. 

Marathons. Marathon Guide is a fun site focused on marathon listings, as well as race results & reviews, and curated articles related to 26.2! World’s Marathons is good for global listings.  FindMyMarathon is also a decent resource. 

Half-Marathons. Half Marathon Guide is a terrific resource for half-marathons. Comprehensive, well-curated lists, lots of helpful info. Also articles about half-marathons and running in general, plus a great newsletter. 

Ultras. Ultra Race Calendar, powered by Ultra Running Magazine has good listings, as does the American Trail Running Association. UltraSignup is the largest registration platform for ultras and also lists races (that they power). 

Trail Running. A fair bit of overlap with sites for ultras.American Trail Running Association and UltraSignup are both excellent. Trail Runner Magazine also has a race calendar.