The 2025 edition of the Xiwuqi Route 99 Marathon and King of the Grasslands Challenge has opened for registration. The event mirrors last year’s edition with a sprint duathlon for KOG participants on Friday, a marathon/half marathon and fun run on Saturday morning, followed by road and MTB races on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Event date: 11 to 13 July 2025.
Last year, for the first time in its history, the KOG competition was no longer based on timed results, but on points attributed according to one’s race results throughout the weekend, starting with the sprint duathlon. Each race was categorised, with e.g. the marathon run offering more points than the half marathon and 11k run, and the long distance cycling races logically offering more than the shorter varieties. This innovation proved to be successful and gave more participants chances to run or cycle themselves into the spotlights. In fact, the men’s ranking lead changed after every single event! Reason enough to continue with the points format.
Based on participant feedback received, the points system for 2025 has been only slightly adjusted. Points will only be distributed among participants who signed up for the full KOG competition. Marathon and half marathon finishers further down the result list will score more finisher points, and compared to last year, the points distribution between road bikers and MTB participants has been adjusted.
From an overall event perspective, the Xiwuqi Route 99 Marathon is the highlight of the weekend taking place on Saturday morning. The marathon starts from Xiwuqi’s cultural square in the centre of town and runs towards the Mongolian Yurt Camp – where the half marathon finishes. From there, marathon runners continue on the Route 99 tourist road across the grasslands to the finish by the Genghis Khan horses statue. This is an experience to enjoy and not a marathon course to set a new PB, as there is a net elevation gain that manifests itself especially in the second half.
The main event for cyclists is Sunday’s 3rd edition of Cyclo Xiwuqi, a 123km long ride on roads through the larger grassland area around Xiwuqi. A short bump or two aside, this is a flat course where the wind may be the biggest enemy.
Cyclists who prefer riding mountainbikes have a partial offroad/onroad race on Sunday at the same time, the Xiwuqi MTB Classic of nearly 80km. This course is based on pre-covid’s popular stage during the Genghis Khan Festival, as the event used to be called.
Cyclists can warm-up already on Saturday afternoon with a brand new Speedy Xiwuqi race of approx 70km. The course for this race has been completely amended and takes riders to areas around Xiwuqi that previously have never been visited.
KOG participants will commence their competition already on Friday with the sprint duathlon of just under 5km. It features 2.2km cycling, 1.4 km running inside the town park and another 1.1 km back to the finish. It will be held in separate open category and MTB categories. Participants compete in heats first, following which the fastest eight per category will proceed to the finals in the late afternoon.
Registration is open via WeChat. International participants who cannot use WeChat, can contact Nordic Ways via email on info@nordicways.com for alternative registration and payment methods.