Twin Cities Marathon Moves to Mid-October After Years of Heat

The Twin Cities Marathon is changing its date for the first time in 45 years. Twin Cities in Motion, the group that runs the event in Minneapolis and St. Paul, announced this week that starting in 2027 the race weekend will move from the first Sunday of October to the middle of the month. The 2027 marathon is set for October 17, pending permits. Under the old schedule it would have fallen on October 3.

This fall’s race is not affected. The 2026 marathon runs October 3 and 4 as planned, with about 30,000 athletes expected across the full weekend and more than 10,000 in the marathon itself.

The change grew out of the 2023 race, which organizers canceled at 5:30 a.m. on race morning because of dangerous heat. The marathon, half marathon, and 10-miler were all called off after runners had already trained through the summer. Eli Asch, then the race director, defended the late decision to Runner’s World at the time. “We saved lives,” he said, adding that he had no doubt canceling was right.

Conditions stayed warm in the years that followed. Organizers pointed to elevated Event Alert System readings and to last year’s race, when temperatures sat around 70 degrees. A multi-year review, they said, showed that mid-October offers a more stable and safer weather window. “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,” the group said in its statement.

The local data backs the concern. Average fall temperatures in the Twin Cities rose 5.2 degrees between 1970 and 2024, and fall nights warmed by about 5.7 degrees from 1970 to 2023. Cooler overnight lows matter to runners, who recover better and start race day in better shape when the air has had time to drop.

The race’s co-medical directors, Dr. Jacob Kastner and Dr. David Supik, framed the move as a health decision. “Protecting the health of every runner, from first-timers to elites, is our top priority,” they said. “Even modest cooling temperature changes can significantly reduce physiological strain, improve hydration balance, and lower the risk of serious medical events.”

First-timers are a large share of who runs Twin Cities. Race director Ed Whetham said 40 to 45 percent of the field each year is running its first marathon, the group most at risk when it gets hot. He also pointed to the pressure a big field places on the area when conditions turn.

“When it gets hot and humid, a participant field of this size puts a massive strain on local medical and public safety resources,” Whetham said. “Making this shift reduces that impact on our city partners and is the right move for everyone involved in this event.”

The new dates come with a bonus. Mid-October lines up more closely with peak fall color in St. Paul and Minneapolis. “Safety comes first, but experience matters, too,” said Dean Orton, president of Twin Cities in Motion. Runner Madison Lutgen welcomed the shift, noting it also lets people start summer training a couple of weeks later and avoid the worst of running in the heat.

Twin Cities in Motion listed tentative weekends through 2031, all pending permits: October 15 to 17 in 2027, October 13 to 15 in 2028, October 12 to 14 in 2029, October 11 to 13 in 2030, and October 10 to 12 in 2031.

The Twin Cities Marathon was the 12th-largest in the country in 2025, with 7,026 finishers, according to Running USA, which makes it the largest U.S. marathon to permanently change its date over climate concerns. Others have made one-off adjustments. At the Los Angeles Marathon in March, with temperatures in the 80s, nearly 1,000 runners took a finisher’s medal and left the course at mile 18. Before the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, athletes lobbied to move a proposed noon start to 10 a.m., and USA Track & Field agreed.

Researchers expect more races to face the same math. A 2026 report projected that by 2045 the Chicago Marathon, also held in October, will have less than a 25 percent chance of ideal race-day weather, and the New York City Marathon less than 30 percent.