Runners in the Marathon start in the iconic and lively Beale Street district and finish with a downhill on Union Ave. adjacent to the finish festival in AutoZone Park. The return of Riverside Drive and the stunning Tom Lee Park gives runners an amazing view of the revitalized Mississippi Riverfront and the Hernando de Soto bridge. Inspiration comes during the run through the St. Jude campus and mission moments then onto historic neighborhoods, through lively block parties, and one-loop through Overton Park.
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St. Jude Memphis Marathon
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How does the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Rank?
The St. Jude Memphis Marathon was the 35th largest marathon in the U.S. last year and was the 32nd largest in 2022.
Last year 5.9% of finishers qualified for the Boston Marathon and 6.1% of runners qualified for Boston in 2022.
This gives the St. Jude Memphis Marathon the 311th highest percentage of Boston Marathon qualifiers in the U.S. last year and the 287th highest percentage in 2022.
Its Course Score of 98.52 ranks it as the 274th fastest marathon course in the U.S. and the 1st fastest course in Tennessee.
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 St. Jude Memphis Marathon a PR Score of 98.52. This PR Score ranks it as the 212th fastest marathon in the U.S. and the 1st fastest in Tennessee.
Learn more about PR Scores and Course Scores on the FAQ page.
St. Jude Memphis Marathon Elevation Chart
Max Elevation: 306 feet (93m) Min Elevation: 219 feet (66m)
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This was my first marathon and it's in my hometown which makes me partial, but I loved it. It's a tough course with rolling hills, but there's pretty good crowd support throughout and several areas are easy to navigate for spectators to help with the runner's morale or equipment. Running through the St. Jude campus is the most special part, but I think it's a great race. Weather can vary quite a bit considering it's fall/early winter in the south, so keep that in mind. After party is great as well!
Race Tips
It's very hilly throughout, but I used a pace ban from this website to help with pacing throughout, which was spot on! Definitely, don't get carried away by the amount of support in the first half and go too fast because it will make the last 10k tough.
Stay in a hotel downtown or in midtown, and there are lots of restaurant options in both areas.
Anonymous's review of 2018 St. Jude Memphis Marathon.
2 /
5 Stars
Review
There is one reason to run this race: St. Jude. I fundraise for St. Jude with a race each year, and I wanted to do the pinnacle race in Memphis. I loved the experience as a hero and the tour of the hospital was amazing. Unfortunately we unseasonably hot weather (70 degrees and sunny) for the race. That combined with the hills on the course made this a really tough day. There were thunderstorms in the morning, so the race was delayed by an hour. The 5k/10k start an hour before the half/full marathon for some reason, so that meant we didn't start until 9am when it was nice and sunny. The course is continuous rolling hills - my Garmin Fenix 5X put it at 722 feet of elevation gain. You are always going up a hill. In 2018, there was no Gatorade on the course - just Nuun. I love some Nuun, but it was not meant to be used during extended activity. Run this race for St. Jude, not for a fast time.
Race Tips
Don't hope for a PR on this course. Plan to enjoy yourself and celebrate St. Jude. Expect lots of hills. The first half of the marathon is downtown and the streets are wide. Even while trying to run tangents, I ran an extra .35 miles in the first 11 miles due to the layout of the course.
The crowd support is the highlight of this race. The people of Memphis are clearly very proud of St. Jude's, justifiably so. I heard many comments from locals about how wonderful the hospital is and how grateful they are to have it as part of their community.
The thing that needs to be clear if you're planning to enter this race is that the main purpose is to raise money for the hospital. In fact, it is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the hospital. Importantly, St. Jude's does not send bills to families, so they rely on external funding to keep the hospital running. Once you register, you receive frequent (1-2/week) emails from the race about fundraising. Fast times and catering to people who are vying for BQs, PRs, or age group awards is a secondary (or tertiary) consideration.
The Expo continues to play up the fundraising nature of the event. After you get your bib and race packet, the first room you enter has St. Jude's marathon related swag. Only after you've paid, do you enter the rest of the Expo where more typical race vendors are present.
I was pretty disappointed that they ran out of safety pins at the expo. How is that even possible? Not surprisingly, the surrounding convenience stores were also sold out of safety pins. This was just one more sign that the race was secondary consideration to the fund raising.
Race Tips
Make sure you line up early to get into the correct corral. The corrals were jam packed and virtually impossible to move forward. Strangely, there were a large number of people trying to move from the front corrals to ones further back. I've never seen this before.
For much of the race, you are limited to one road lane and you're packed in. Specifically, despite running on a 4 lane road, two lanes remained open to vehicular traffic and one lane was closed to provide a buffer between runners and cars. This leaves one lane for runners, which isn't a big deal at mile 10, but at mile 1 you're shoulder to shoulder with other runners with no hope of passing. Again, if you're in the correct corral, it's probably fine. If you have problems going out too fast, you'll be forced to reign it in. However, it you're not in the correct corral, you'll find yourself trapped with no help of moving up where you need to be.
The other tight spot on the course is the finish where you run 50 meters or so through a chute onto the Memphis Redbirds baseball field. Again, if it were just marathoners, it probably would be fine, but you end up getting trapped behind half-marathon walkers who are there for fund raising or to cross an item off their bucket list and are walking 4+ across and impeding the flow of traffic.
Some people try to down play the hills on the course. It's hilly, make no mistake about it.
The weather was absolutely fantastic. 40F at the start and 60F at the finish.
There are plenty of downtown hotels that are within easy walking distance to the start/finish. Book really early, because they do fill up. Our hotel had a sign posted at the front desk that said you are staying in the entertainment/sports district so expect loud noise coming from the street until wee hours of the morning. I suspect this is true most weekends other than marathon weekend. There was a lot of noise coming from the street until Friday at 10 PM or so, but things were quite after that. I didn't notice any significant noise Saturday night either. I suspect that on Friday, most people staying downtown are going to bed early and on Saturday, they are too tired from their race to go out and party too much.
Bottom Line;
Pros:
-Crowd support
-Weather
Cons
-Too much emphasis on fund raising
-Does not cater to faster runners
Keys
-Book your hotel early
-Stay downtown
-Line up early
Overall, it was an ok experience, but as someone vying for age group awards, I won't likely be back.
AV819's review of 2017 St. Jude Memphis Marathon.
5 /
5 Stars
Review
The weather was great, the spectators are excellent and frequent, the run through St Jude's campus will leave you inspired, and the food at the end is plentiful (and included beer)! This is the most welcoming city that lives its marathoners, and you will hear a 'thank you' everywhere you go. Aid stations aplenty and packed with enthusiastic volunteers. The police are everywhere helping at intersections. What an outpouring, and it makes the event amazing.
Race Tips
The hills are minimal. There are enough shady spots on the course that the weather stays ok even as the sun warms up.
If you stay at one of the recommended downtown hotels, you will easily be able to walk to/Friday m the packet expo, start, and finish.
MD's review of 2017 St. Jude Memphis Marathon.
3 /
5 Stars
Review
This was my first marathon and I loved all the crowd support and running through St. Jude hospital. However, I felt this marathon was not really geared towards serious runners. They should of had the 5K, 10K, and relay races on a different day. It was extremely congested until about mile 4 or so! I was also a little disappointed in the course, especially the last 5 miles... no one wants to loop around and have a slight incline at the very end of a marathon! Ugh! And nothing to see the last 5 or 6 miles.
4.2 Stars from 10 Reviews
