‘Safety Comes First’: Twin Cities Marathon Will Move to a New Start Date

Organizers of the Twin Cities Marathon announced today that starting in 2027, they plan to move the race to mid October from its traditional date the first weekend in the month, citing “heat-related risks” and their hope to improve “the likelihood of ideal race day conditions.” The 2027 race will be held on October 17, assuming organizers are able to secure permits for that date. Throughout the marathon’s 45-year history, the race has been held the first Sunday in October. The 2026 race will be held on October 4 and had the schedule remained the same, the 2027 race would have been October 3. In a statement, race officials cited the heat that forced the cancellation of the 2023 marathon, half marathon, and 10-miler. “A multi-year review—prompted by the extreme heat that forced the cancellation of Sunday events in 2023 and reinforced by elevated Event Alert System readings in subsequent years—showed that mid-October offers a more stable and safer weather profile,” the statement read, in part. “Long-term climate data and recent race-day trends indicate that even modest shifts in average highs, lows, and overnight cooling can meaningfully reduce heat-related risk.” “We made this move with our runners and local resources in mind,” said race director Ed Whetham in the statement, adding that about 40-45 percent of the Twin Cities field each year is made up of first-time marathoners and that when race day gets hot, it puts a “massive strain on local medical and public safety resources.” The statement said the new race date will more closely align with peak foliage season in St. Paul and Minneapolis. “Safety comes first, but experience matters, too,” said Dean Orton, president of Twin Cities in Motion, which puts on the marathon and several other running events in the area throughout the year. The 2023 race was scheduled for October 1. High temperatures were forecast during the week leading up, and race organizers waited until 5:30 a.m. on race morning to cancel that day’s events. In an interview, Eli Asch, who was then the race director, told Runner’s World that the late cancellation was due to “a commitment to ourselves and our runners to do everything possible to put on the race.” He said he had no doubt that canceling was the right thing to do. “We saved lives,” he said at the time. The Twin Cities Marathon was the country’s 12th-largest in 2025, with 7,026 finishers, according to Running USA, a running industry association. Twin Cities is thought to be the largest marathon to adjust its traditional date due to climate-related concerns, although other races have made one-time adjustments. At the Los Angeles Marathon in March, where temperatures reached into the 80s, runners were told they could still collect a medal if they exited the race course at mile 18. Nearly 1,000 runners elected to end their races 8 miles early. Before the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, held on February 3, athletes were alarmed by the proposed 12 p.m. start time and lobbied the sport’s governing body to change the time. Ultimately, USA Track & Field relented and moved the start back to 10 a.m. Climate scientists say eventually most marathons could be affected by rising temperatures, and in a 2026 report, they projected that by the year 2045, the Chicago Marathon, also held in October, has less than a 25 percent chance of having ideal weather on race day. The New York City Marathon, with its early November race date, will have less than a 30 percent chance of ideal weather by 2045. Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!