A young travel influencer from America recently detailed his experience of unexpectedly running a marathon in North Korea to tick the country off his travel bucket list.
The 23-year-old, Alex Page, participated in the event in July 2025 with just 24 days’ notice.
His story sparked a heated debate online, with many questioning the safety risks involved for foreigners visiting the country.
“I don’t know why Americans don’t learn. Why would you risk your life to go to North Korea?” wrote one concerned social media user.
Alex Page visited North Korea after the country reopened to tourists in February 2025, following a five-year lockdown
The nation had been off-limits to visitors since the Covid pandemic, and it was only earlier this year that officials began allowing tourists back in.
However, Pyongyang, the capital city, currently remains closed to outsiders.
In light of this, Alex and a few fellow travelers, who had explored several countries except North Korea, wanted to find a way in but had no idea how to secure entry.
According to Page, he and the others met a man at a hostel in Mongolia who was part of the first tour into North Korea after its reopening.
That chance encounter gave Alex the final push and motivation to visit the country himself, and soon, he came up with a plan.
According to U.S. law, it is illegal for American citizens to travel to North Korea
Currently, U.S. passports are not valid for travel into or through the country, a restriction that posed the first major challenge for Alex.
“This is due to the serious risk of arrest, long-term detention, and and the threat of wrongful detention of U.S. citizens,” states a travel advisory issued by the U.S. Department of State.
However, Alex found a loophole. In an interview with People, he revealed that he holds dual citizenship in both the United States and Mexico.
His Mexican passport came in handy for securing the necessary visas and travel approvals.
Alex, who also makes travel content on social media, shared, “There were so many questions of: ‘Is this even possible? Am I gonna get flagged for making content? Am I going to get flagged for being American?’”
“There were so many questions of: ‘Is this even possible?’” recalled Alex in a recent interview
@alex.by.air This was one of craziest travel stories for sure😂 #adventuretravel #marathon #running #usa ♬ original sound – Alex Page | Adventure Travel
Image credits: alex.by.air
Preparing for the marathon, which he signed up for with less than a month’s notice while staying in Russia during the harsh winter, was “hard” to juggle alongside his constant travels.
Page told the outlet, “I honestly don’t really know how I did it. Mixing travel with actually exercising and my job of content, then all those, it’s like so hard to do at once.”
As for the big day, Alex described the marathon as “the single craziest experience of my life!”
“It felt like we were the star athletes in the Olympics, which is wild because I’m like an amateur runner going to do this. Then the professional North Korean runners came out all in uniform, all extremely muscular. They were almost all in flat shoes that looked pretty normal. Then they ran a 2:25 marathon time.”
According to Alex, the stadium was filled with a massive crowd “doing synchronized claps and chants” throughout the race.
Since the country had only recently reopened at the time of the event, many were astonished to see a foreigner like Page participating.
The spectators were surprised to see the 23-year-old travel content creator running in the race, as it was considered “extremely rare”
He explained, “There are no foreigners that live there, other than a few embassy workers. It is extremely rare, and especially for kids who are under 6, they had never seen a foreigner because [the country] was closed.”
Apart from himself, there were “only 26 foreign participants in the full marathon” and he “was the only American to have competed.”
“It was such a surreal experience to see all the different buildings. It could not be replicated in almost anywhere else in the world… Relatively speaking, the marathon felt pretty normal, which is why it was an even more interesting experience.”
For Alex, spending four days in the capital city was “a very nice” experience overall, and he described Pyongyang as “an awesome city.”
“Every country has something so interesting and worth visiting. Some have higher barriers than others, and I’ve been really interested in finding cool stuff that other people aren’t doing,” he shared about his passion for traveling.
“When you come back from a trip, especially if you dive into the culture for multiple months, [you become] so much more of an interesting person.”
So far, Alex has traveled to 43 countries and hopes to visit all 195 across the globe in his lifetime
While Page’s adventure took place in July, just a few months earlier in April 2025, another American traveler, Cameron Mofid, echoed Alex’s sentiments when he participated in the Pyongyang International Marathon.
Much like Alex, Mofid described his marathon experience as “the craziest experience I’ve had in my entire life!”
He told the South China Morning Post, “It’s hard to explain the feeling, but the adrenaline that you have… is like no other. North Korea was my 195th and final country.”
“Why not the NYC Marathon? You would be somewhat safer!!!” questioned one social media user
