From the Race Organizers - Runners experience the sights and sounds of the Southeast’s fastest growing city, including the Queen City’s signature tree lined streets, historic landmarks, major sporting venues and the most eclectic neighborhood parties. The race finishes in the heart of Uptown Charlotte at Romare Bearden Park. With entertainment along the course, major headliners at the finish line festival, and five distance options, it’s a race for all runners!
The Charlotte Marathon was the 46th largest marathon in the U.S. last year and was the 54th largest in 2022.
Last year 6.3% of finishers qualified for the Boston Marathon and 3.9% of runners qualified for Boston in 2022.
This gives the Charlotte Marathon the 292nd highest percentage of Boston Marathon qualifiers in the U.S. last year and the 368th highest percentage in 2022.
Its Course Score of 97.64 ranks it as the 347th fastest marathon course in the U.S. and the 9th fastest course in North Carolina.
The typical race time temperature and humidity levels are within the ideal range for optimal marathon performance. This, coupled with the Course Score, gives the Charlotte Marathon a PR Score of 97.64. This PR Score ranks it as the 291st fastest marathon in the U.S. and the 9th fastest in North Carolina.
Learn more about PR Scores and Course Scores on the FAQ page.
Charlotte Marathon Elevation Chart
Max Elevation: 773 feet (235m) Min Elevation: 617 feet (188m)
The marathon is extremely well run, and the first half takes you through beautiful neighborhoods with lots of crowd support. The back half SUCKS! The crowd support falls off; and the course is just a series of hills and quick turns - I felt like a rat in a maze. I live in CLT and I won't bother driving down town to run it again.
The Charlotte community was great. I loved the architecture and sculptures throughout the city. The marathon course was gently rolling, but the last mile was really tough, up a big hill, busy road, and (not the race's fault) very windy. It was a tough course as far as hills are concerned, but definitely easier than Atlanta hils.
The first half of the marathon is awesome - beautiful neighborhoods, great crowd support, etc. but the back half gets a little lonely. There are some rolling hills but nothing too hateful; although I would say the final mile being uphill on a busy street was not particularly fun. Lastly, the two times I've ran this there has been a pretty strong headwind from about mile 11 to 18 so be prepared.
Race Tips
I had a problem with my GPS getting lost during the 2 times in the city so I showed as running 26.83 instead of 26.2 which really altered my perceived pace - I missed my goal by of under 4 hours when I finished 4:00:50
Beautiful course with rolling hills, awesome fan support, ample water/gatorade stations along the route and porte-potties, well organized, great finisher medal.
Race Tips
Train hills! No hill is super steep or long, but there aren't really many stretches of flat
4 Stars from 4 Reviews
