I am one of (at the time of this writing) 20,000 people [1] worldwide who have completed six of the (now seven) Abbott World Marathon Majors, earning me the famous Six Star Medal. What started as an innocent lottery spot for the Chicago Marathon has become quite a quest on its own over the past ten years. While I only managed to write up a proper race report for one of the six marathons, here’s a quick rundown of my journey in chronological order.

Chicago Marathon, October 11, 2015

Given, not earned. If I recall correctly, I had registered through the lottery for Chicago in 2014 already but got cold feet (i.e., felt unprepared). Luckily, I was able to defer my start to 2015. Back then, I was not even aware of the World Marathon Majors series, which had been introduced in 2006. My finish time of 3:09:21 was fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
Kudos: 7

Boston Marathon, April 17, 2017

Earned, not given. Qualified and registered with my Chicago time from 2015 and had a very humbling experience with a finish time of 3:31:31. The Six Star Finisher medal was introduced in 2016, and I think I saw it during the Boston Marathon expo for the first time. I don't believe I was hooked right away.
Kudos: 33

Berlin Marathon, September 24, 2017

Given, not earned. In 2016, I applied for a spot through the lottery for the first time and got lucky immediately. Thus, I got a chance to make up for my slow time in Boston and ended up running a huge personal best of 3:01:26. This PB ended up standing until 2024! As I had a really great race, I figured I should write a race report, and to this date, Berlin remains the only Major with a documented race report. With three Majors completed I was definitely hooked on getting my Six Star Finisher medal.
Kudos: 34

New York City Marathon, November 04, 2018

Earned, not given. The beauty of being old(-ish) — M40 in 2017 — and fast(-ish)is that I was able to get a spot for the New York City Marathon through my qualifying time. To this date, I am still puzzled how I could pull off a 3:04:08 on this relatively tough course, given it was probably my most poorly executed race of all the Majors. In hindsight, I believe that I was never physically fitter than in New York in 2018 and should have finished with a personal best.
Kudos: 45

London Marathon, October 02, 2022

Payed for, neither earned nor given. After many unsuccessful attempts to get a spot through the lottery, I finally bit the bullet and paid a Travel Agency to get me to London, including a spot in the marathon. While the course of the London Marathon is difficult to beat in terms of sights to be seen, the crazy number of people wanting to run there and the lack of fair alternatives (like, being able to qualify as a non-UK citizen) to the lottery means I will never run in London again. Which is sad because due to a planning mishap on my side (I had run another Berlin Marathon the week prior) London was really just a ‘get-it-done’ kind of affair, resulting in my slowest of all six Majors with 3:49:50.
Kudos: 44

Tokyo Marathon, March 2nd, 2025

Given, not earned. Similar to London, I had a couple of unsuccessful tries to get a spot for Tokyo through the lottery. Finally, in 2024 I was lucky and was able to register for my sixth and final Major. With an injury-laden winter, I came to Tokyo with the only goal to complete the distance within the time limit of 7 hours. I was far from prime fitness and approached the marathon as a Sunday long-run. In the end, I was able to run the whole thing (despite an achilles tendonitis contracted a week before) in 3:40:14.
Kudos: 87

  1. Who also claimed their stars through the World Marathon Majors site — it is very possible that more people have completed these six marathons and never bothered to claim their Six Star Finisher medal. ↩︎