Take one of the most beautiful cities in the world and cram the streets with 50,000 runners, and you have a grand spectacle that can compete for the title of crown

jewel in Europe's fitness program. It's one of the oldest of the modern marathons, with a start date of 1896.

You might have heard of the great wall for its, well, greatness. It's one of the only man-made objects visible from space.

The Great Wall marathon takes place entirely along its

winding top, in a rocky region of Luanping County, 78 miles northeast of Beijing.

The course includes more than twenty thousand stone steps. Take it slow and tie your shoelaces.

Ooh-Rah! Get some of the action in D.C. and show you've got what it takes to compete with the best of the best of the best in the ninth largest

marathon in the world.

Any runners over 14 are welcome, but this is all about honor. The U.S. Marine Corps marathon is the largest in the world that gives out no

prizes but your own sense of self worth and accomplishment.

Over three hundred thousand runners apply for this event, one of the six major marathons in the world. Only thirty thousand make the cut, though, so to compete you need

a pretty decent qualifying score: two hours twenty three minutes for men, two hours fifty four minutes for women.

Since there's a marathon at the lowest point in the world, it only makes sense that there would be one all the way up, too. In fact, there are two

marathons at Everest, one every two years that was started in 1985, and one started in 2003. The treks were designed to commemorate the first climb of the mountain. The lower

of the two begins at the Everest base camp and ends at Namche Bazaar, almost twelve thousand feet above sea level.

Bring a jacket and take it easy, this one's bound

to put even serious athletes to the ultimate test.