The Hong Kong Marathon is one of Asia's top distance runs. Held in February every year, the Hong Kong Marathon next year is going to be even more popular than normal because it's the 150th anniversary of Standard Chartered Bank being in Hong Kong. Standard Chartered sponsors the event. In 2009, to celebrate this important anniversary, they're increasing the prize money for the full marathon to U.S. $100,000. What this means is runners from all over the world, who might not necessarily run in the HK Marathon, will be running in the race. In fact, it's so popular that entries for all the categories of the marathon (the 10K runs and the half marathon) are already completely full. Entries for the full marathon are also nearing overflow, so if you haven't signed up already and you'll be in Hong Kong in February, now is the time to do it.

Besides the prize money, though, what makes Hong Kong Marathon events so special is the location of the run. The 10K, the half marathon and the full marathon actually begin at different starting lines in Hong Kong, but they all finish in the same place - beautiful Victoria Park at Causeway Bay. Hong Kong has some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Just imagine running alongside the causeway and overlooking the water and the skyline. There are also around 45,000 people that participate in the event, and all those people, together with the scenery, really will give you a feeling of being involved in something special.

The Hong Kong Marathon is also part of the Greatest Race on Earth, a competition where competitors don their running shoes in four different marathons worldwide (Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong) for a total of more than $1 million in prize money.