Gate of No Return

• What's the story behind your event name?

  The "Gate of No Return" is a UNESCO World Heritage monument at the Atlantic shores of Benin, West Africa. It marks the place from where 1.2 Million Africans were shipped into slavery. Once the slaves crossed this gate, they essentially lost their identity, their freedom.
  Our Gate of No Return Marathon symbolically reverses the direction of the slave trade. In essence, our participants run along the beach, pass the gate inlands and proceed towards the historic city of Ouidah. Doing so, they convert the Gate of No Return into a Gate of Return. Hence the strike-through on our event name. BTW, In French our event is called "la Porte Du Non Retour. Voila, now you know.

• When will the event take place?

  Due to COVID-19 our first event will get pushed back towards the end of 2021 or 2022. We are also reviewing options of hosting our first event in the United States in 2021 and launching our African events thereafter. Please subscribe to our newsletter so we can keep you up-to-date with the latest developments.