Trail run in Vietnam
Vietnam Trail Series (VTS) is comprised of Vietnam Trail Marathon, Vietnam Jungle Marathon and Vietnam Mountain Marathon
Vietnam Trail Series is the result of a genuine love of running and a fascination with Vietnam.
It all started back in 2013, when we launched the Vietnam Mountain Marathon with about 200 runners attending. The idea was to create a race way beyond the usual trail run with a route that led runners through some of Vietnam’s most beautiful scenery and create encounters with remote mountain tribes.
This core idea has developed the Vietnam Mountain Marathon to one of Southeast Asia’s largest trail races with more than 3.000 runners and two other races founded on the same ideals: a Trail Marathon and a Jungle Marathon.
VIETNAM TRAIL SERIES
We founded Vietnam Mountain Marathon (VMM) in 2013 and Vietnam Jungle Marathon was added in 2017. The first Vietnam Trail Marathon in 2019 completes the Vietnam Trail Series.
VMM is arranged by the Danish & Vietnamese travel company Topas Travel and supported by Topas Ecolodge. It was founded in 2013 with The Danish Embassy in Vietnam as co-organizers. The run is a social event, planned and organized by runners for runners, nature lovers and people who want an extraordinary, remote and unique experience.
The event is a result of a long lasting relation between Topas Travel and the Sapa area, as Topas was one of the pioneers in the area more than 20 years ago. Topas Ecolodge is remote located in the Sapa mountains and was partly funded by Danish development assistance as a development project and a showcase for sustainable tourism in the early 2000s.
At the same time this event supports development in the local area as all runners long distance runners donate US$20 to charitable work via their entry fee. Over the years these donations have gone to both Sapa O Chau, a local organization that provides education and vocational training for minority youths, Operation Smile, and Newborns Vietnam. Funds are also used for projects in villages along the route, for example a school house has been constructed to vastly improve the education conditions for children living in the mountains.
Our hope is that you and your supporters and friends will enjoy this mountainous experience as much as we do while helping to contribute to its sustainable development.