Seattle Marathon

Course & Elevation

The Seattle Marathon, presented in 2026 as the UW Medicine Seattle Marathon, is a road marathon in Seattle held on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It is organised by the Seattle Marathon Association, a non-profit organisation, and began in 1970 when a group of friends from the University of Washington decided to hold their own running event. Thirty-eight runners started that first race, and 31 of them finished the 26.2 miles. In 2026 the marathon starts at 7:00 a.m. at Seattle Center, at 5th Avenue and Harrison Street, and finishes at Bell Harbor Pier 66 on the waterfront; the half marathon starts at 8:30 a.m. from the same place and finishes at the same pier. Earlier courses have started in front of the Museum of Pop Culture on the Seattle Center campus and finished at Memorial Stadium. The race weekend also includes the Seattle Kids Marathon, added in 1999, in which school-aged children run a full marathon one mile at a time. Bib and shirt pickup on the Friday and Saturday before the race is at The Westin Seattle, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.