IKEA Marathon 2026: Running 26.2 Miles Inside the Croydon Store (Aisle Be Back)
- 7 hours ago
- 6 min read
There are trail runs, road runs, track runs, and now, apparently, retail runs. Two events have landed on the UK calendar that swap leafy towpaths and finish-line arches for fluorescent strip lighting, flat-pack furniture and the gentle hum of a chest freezer. If you've ever caught yourself doing a quick lap of the supermarket because you forgot the milk, congratulations: that's now a legitimate athletic discipline.
Here's the lowdown on both, plus a few thoughts on what it actually means to run 26.2 miles past the soft furnishings. But first, a confession: I got there before the big chains did.
I was doing this before it was cool
It was no April Fools. On 1st April 2023, with the help of a local agri firm, I shipped two treadmills from my local gym to a shopping centre, and there I ran a 50K ultra marathon. The second treadmill was for anyone who fancied joining me for a mile. Many people did.
I did it for a few reasons. It was part of rebuilding myself after cancer. It fed my slightly unhinged desire to design and run ultras that grab headlines, and this one delivered, with a journalist interviewing me mid-run. And it raised money for cancer charities along the way.
So you'll forgive me a wry smile at all of this. Running and retail space, it seems, has finally caught on.
The IKEA Marathon: Croydon, 13 December 2026
Billed as the first official marathon ever held inside an IKEA store, this one takes place entirely indoors at IKEA Croydon. No car park, no outside loop, just the showroom aisles, the tills, the warehouse floor, and yes, the travelator.
The facts:
When: Sunday 13 December 2026, starting at 6 p.m. and finishing by midnight.
The course: Roughly 1.5mi laps, which works out to about 17 loops for the full 26.2 miles.
The catch: A hard six-hour cutoff. The store is a working environment and has to be cleared by the end of the night, so there's no hanging around admiring the kitchen displays.
Places: 80 runners.
Cost: £80 affiliated, £82 unaffiliated, with 16% of proceeds going to the housing and homelessness charity Shelter.
Organisers: Sussex Trail Events.
And now the genuinely delightful bits. The organisers want the finisher's medal to be self-assembly, arriving in pieces, complete with instructions. There's talk of a matching finisher's T-shirt. The aid stations are going full Swedish, with meatballs reportedly on the cards and lingonberry sandwiches floated as a possibility. Best of all, the organiser noted that course marking is barely necessary, because the store already has those little arrows on the floor pointing you through every department whether you like it or not.
One imagines the real test isn't the distance. It's running past the marketplace 17 times and not buying a set of tea lights, a plant pot and a thing you didn't know existed but suddenly cannot live without.
Would I enter? Reader, you have no idea what you're asking. I visited this very store once, many years ago, and vowed never to return. It remains the single worst retail experience of my life. Navigating the one-way system was a marathon effort in itself, in and out of beds, kitchens and wardrobes, an ordeal harder than any ultra I've run since. And to top it all off, the day was baking hot, the walk to the car carrying a heavy desk felt endless, and the bottle of Coke I'd left in the car exploded all over my jeans the moment I opened it.
We were due to meet friends for lunch, and I turned up looking like I'd wet myself. To this day, the mere mention of the word IKEA in our household brings me out in a cold sweat.
So no, I will not be running 17 laps of it. But I will be cheering, from a safe and fully dry distance, for everyone who does.
Entering the IKEA marathon?
Yes
No
I'm building flat pack that day
The Phoenix Supermarketathon: Tesco Bridgend, 28 June 2026
If December feels a long way off, Phoenix Running got there first with the inaugural Supermarketathon, held in and around the Tesco Bridgend Extra in South Wales.
The facts:
When: Sunday 28 June 2026, starting at 4:30 p.m.
Format: A 6-hour timed event. You choose your distance, anything from 5km and 10k up to half, full marathon or ultra, and complete as many or as few laps as you like.
The course: Laps of around 0.4 to 0.5 of a mile. You start in the foyer, head out and around the perimeter of the car park, come back through the foyer, up the travelator (walking only, for safety), a circuit of the first floor, and then back down through the foyer again. Then you do it all over again. And again.
Cost: £57.95 affiliated, £59.95 unaffiliated.
The Phoenix promise: Run one lap and you're a finisher in their eyes, and everyone gets the bespoke medal.
There's something wonderfully democratic about a race where the elevation profile is dictated by a travelator and the scenery rotates between trolleys, the bakery aisle and a man doing his weekly shop wondering why there are people in running vests lapping him.
Tesco, I love. My local store is spacious, the staff are welcoming, the selection is vast, and even when they play games with me by shuffling my favourite products to a different aisle, I take it as a bit of light-hearted fun. Hey guys, love ya.
But that travelator. What kind of witchcraft is going on here? Every time I approach it with a trolley I have visions of the thing rolling backwards, tumbling me behind it, security peering over the crumpled heap of me and my shopping at the bottom. How on earth it stays in place until I reach the top I will never know. Now, I love hills. You'll find me in the mountains around Chamonix most years. But running up and down a Tesco travelator? That is a step too far. I just know it's waiting to trap my shoelaces and eat me. No thank you.
So... why run in a shop?
On paper it sounds absurd. In practice, it makes a strange amount of sense. These places are climate-controlled, flat, weatherproof, well-lit and have toilets every few hundred metres, which is more than you can say for most ultras. There's no mud, no headwind, and you're never more than a short jog from a snack.
It also fits a long tradition of runners seeking out the gloriously daft: races down mineshafts, around multi-storey car parks, on cruise ship decks, and round and round 400m tracks for 24 hours straight. The appeal isn't the venue being beautiful. It's that it's a brilliant story, and a medal you'll actually want to explain to people.
Whether either of these becomes a regular fixture or remains a glorious one-off, they prove a simple point: give runners a flat loop and a finisher's medal, and we will happily run it absolutely anywhere. Even past the meatballs.
Aisle see you at the start line.
Frequently asked questions
Is there really a marathon inside an IKEA store? Yes. The IKEA Marathon takes place inside the IKEA Croydon store in south London on Sunday 13 December 2026. Organised by Sussex Trail Events, it is billed as the first official marathon held entirely inside an IKEA, with the full 26.2 mile route running through the showroom aisles, tills, warehouse and travelator.
When and where is the IKEA Marathon held? It is held at IKEA Croydon on Sunday 13 December 2026. The race starts at 6 p.m. and must finish by midnight, with a hard six-hour cutoff because the store has to be cleared at the end of the night.
How many laps is the IKEA Marathon? Each lap is roughly 1.5km, so runners complete about 17 laps to reach the full marathon distance of 26.2 miles.
How much does the IKEA Marathon cost and how many places are there? Entry is £80 for affiliated runners and £82 for unaffiliated runners. There are 80 places, and 16% of proceeds go to the housing and homelessness charity Shelter.
What is the Phoenix Supermarketathon? The Phoenix Supermarketathon is a running event held in and around a supermarket. The first one takes place at the Tesco Bridgend Extra in South Wales on Sunday 28 June 2026. It is a six-hour timed event run by Phoenix Running, where participants can cover anything from 5km up to an ultra.
Where is the Tesco running event held? At Tesco Bridgend Extra, Cowbridge Road, Bridgend, CF31 3SQ, in South Wales. The course loops from the foyer, around the car park perimeter, up the travelator (walking only) and around the first floor.
Can beginners take part in these supermarket and store runs? Yes. Both events use a lap format, so you can run as far as you like within the time limit. At the Phoenix Supermarketathon, completing a single lap makes you a finisher and earns the medal, which makes it accessible to beginners and walkers as well as ultra runners.
Has anyone run an ultra inside a shopping centre before? Yes. On 1st April 2023, before the major retailers embraced the idea, the author of this blog ran a 50K ultra marathon on treadmills set up inside a shopping centre, with a second treadmill so members of the public could join for a mile. The run raised money for cancer charities and was covered by the press.
Why would anyone run inside a shop? Indoor retail spaces are flat, weatherproof, climate-controlled and well lit, with toilets and snacks close at hand. They also make a memorable story, which is part of a long tradition of runners seeking out unusual venues such as mineshafts, car parks and cruise ship decks.
