Polar Night Marathon 2027, Tromsø: date, distances and registration
Polar Night Marathon is on 9 January 2027 in Tromsø. Norway's largest winter race, with distances from 5 km to the full marathon, run in the blue hour north of the Arctic Circle.
Key facts
| Date | Saturday 9 January 2027 |
| Place | Tromsø |
| Distances | 5 km to full marathon (42.195 km) |
| Organiser | Midnight Sun Marathon |
| Light | Blue hour, polar night |
| Registration | msm.no |
Everything above was read on msm.no on 25 September 2026. Entry fee, start time and course profile are not here, because the organiser builds those pages in the browser and we have not been able to read them.
Norway's largest winter race
Msm.no describes Polar Night Marathon as Norway's largest winter race, and as "a spectacular race in the blue hour north of the Arctic Circle". It is run in Tromsø in early January, when the sun does not come over the horizon and the daylight is instead a long blue twilight over the fjord and the mountains.
The same organiser runs the Tromsø Midnight Sun Marathon in June, and the two races are each other's opposites: one in 24-hour daylight, the other in polar night. For a runner who wants both, they sit roughly half a year apart.
What we do not know yet
The entry fee, start time, cut-off and 2027 course map sit behind pages that msm.no builds in the browser, and we do not publish numbers we have not seen. This page previously carried an entry fee of 500-900 NOK on the basis of a source that only confirmed the date; that figure has been removed rather than left standing without support. When the organiser publishes the 2027 detail we will update this and date it.
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FAQ
When is Polar Night Marathon 2027?
Saturday 9 January 2027, in Tromsø. The date is on msm.no, read 25 September 2026: "polar night marathon - Norges storste vinterlop! 9. januar 2027". The organiser is Midnight Sun Marathon, who also run the Tromsø Midnight Sun Marathon in June.
What distances can you choose?
Msm.no states "several distances, from 5 km to the full marathon (42.195 km)". The exact 2027 list, including the half marathon and the middle distances, sits on the organiser's own page and is loaded in the browser, so we have not read it from the page source. Check msm.no/polar-night-marathon for the official list.
What does entry cost?
We give no price here, because we have not been able to read one. Msm.no builds its registration page in the browser and the entry fee is not visible in the page source. This page previously carried 500-900 NOK on a source that only covered the date, and that figure has been removed. The fee is on msm.no/polar-night-marathon/pamelding-morketidslopet.
What does running in the blue hour mean?
Tromsø is north of the Arctic Circle, and in early January the sun does not rise above the horizon. It does not go fully dark in the middle of the day either: the light becomes a long blue twilight, which is what msm.no calls the blue hour. That is what makes the race visually distinctive, and it is why it is held in January rather than in a milder month.
Polar Night Marathon or Midnight Sun Marathon?
Same organiser, same city, opposite light. Polar Night Marathon is on 9 January 2027 in the blue hour; Tromsø Midnight Sun Marathon is on 19 June 2027 with a midnight start in 24-hour daylight. Polar Night is the winter race and makes different demands on footwear and layers; Midnight Sun is the larger of the two and draws the most international runners.