Marine Corps Marathon (Marathon de Washington)

Marine Corps Marathon (Marathon de Washington) is run in Washington on October 25, 2026, over the full marathon distance of 26.2 miles with around 790 feet of climbing, alongside a 1-mile MCM Kids Run. The course starts in Arlington, Virginia, between Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon, crosses the Key Bridge into Washington, passes the capital's national monuments, then returns to Virginia for an uphill finish at the Marine Corps War Memorial.

Traced back to a 1975 memo by Colonel James L. Fowler, the race drew 1,175 runners in 1976 and roughly 40,000 in 2025. It pays no prize money, which earned it the nickname of the People's Marathon. Around mile 20 a timed checkpoint sets a cut-off before the bridge reopens to traffic, so build your training around holding pace late: a sixteen-week block with a long run reaching twenty miles is the standard approach.