Beyond the finish line: a systematic review of participation motivation and engagement in amateur marathoners

Despite the rapid global growth of amateur marathon participation, evidence on the motivational factors that initiate and sustain participation remains fragmented and has yet to be systematically reviewed and synthesized. To synthesize empirical evidence on participation motivation among amateur marathon runners and to examine how motivational patterns vary across runner characteristics, participation contexts, and stages of engagement. This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 statement. Searches of Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and the Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection, supplemented by manual citation searching, identified 415 records. After duplicate removal, title and abstract screening, and full-text eligibility assessment, 16 empirical studies met the inclusion criteria. Sixteen studies of amateur runners aged 18–72 years were included in this review. Most studies were conducted in Europe. Overall, the methodological quality of the included studies was moderate according to the MMAT assessment, with only two studies meeting all appraisal criteria. Four main categories of participation motives emerged and were divided into: health-related motives ( n = 16), achievement motives ( n = 14), psychological motives ( n = 13), and social motives ( n = 10). Health motives were consistently the strongest motivations for participation, and achievement, psychological, and social motives varied by gender, age, experience level, and race. Based on the above data, motivations often shift over time, with initial participation commonly driven by health or weight control, and long-term engagement increasingly supported by psychological well-being, habit formation, and social connection. Motivation among amateur marathon runners is multidimensional and appears to evolve across participation stages and life circumstances. Sustained participation depends not only on health and performance goals but also on psychological and social processes that support long-term engagement. To facilitate future research synthesis, subsequent systematic reviews or meta-analyses must focus on four critical pillars: (1) need for higher-quality studies; (2) larger and more diverse samples to capture a broader runner population; (3) standardization of methods and measurements to facilitate cross-study comparability; and (4) examination of understudied variables or populations. Not applicable.