Golden Dragon Marathon 2023

We start actively in autumn with the Golden Dragon. One of the most popular runs on rough terrain returns on September 2, 2023, in a beautiful partnership between the Cultural-Natural Reserve “Orheiul Vechi” and RunMoldova! This year, runners will have only two races: the CROS (14km with 250m D+) and the Half Marathon (22km with 400m D+).

The Golden Dragon Marathon in Old Orhei is a competition organized in a unique location, set on geological structures over 13 million years old, with traces of human habitation over 30 000 years old, Geto-Dacian fortifications, caves and traces of the cities of the Golden Horde and the Land of Moldavia – “Shehr al-Cedid” (New Town) and “Old Orhei”.

The Old Orheiul Reserve, located at the crossroads of the West and the East, preserves a DIVINE SIGN – the imprint of the Golden Dragon, a symbolic creature revered since time immemorial throughout the Eurasian space.The “Path of the Dragon” (Half Marathon) or “Golden Horde” (Marathon) follows, on millions of years old rocks, through places full of history and legends!

The race route includes the Butuceni Rock Monastery, St. Mary’s Church, the “millenary amphitheatre”, the remains of the Geto-Dacian citadel and sanctuary, the Tatar baths, the palace of the “pârcălabului”, the medieval church and citadel, the stone dwelling and the silhouette of the legendary Golden Dragon.

IMPORTANT: Only persons who have reached the age of 18, are sure of their physical fitness and take full responsibility for their own physical condition during the competition and express this by signing the declaration on their own responsibility upon receipt of the kits may take part in the race.