The Beirut Marathon, known also as the Beirut International Marathon (BIM), is an annual event that takes place in Beirut, Lebanon. The first ever BIM was held on October 19th, 2003 and attracted over 6,000 runners from 49 countries, and tens of thousands of Lebanese and international spectators.[citation needed] These numbers increased every year, most notably reaching 32,000 runners from 71 countries in the 2009 BLOM Beirut Marathon, and over 47,800 runners in 2017. It was recently accredited as a Silver Label Road Race by the IAAF.