Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon: Course, Route Profile & Map

Course & Elevation

The start sits in the middle of downtown Minneapolis, on 6th Street beside U.S. Bank Stadium. Hennepin Avenue and Kenwood Parkway past Loring Park bring you to water within a few kilometres: Lake of the Isles, then the short ramp on Douglas Avenue at kilometre three – the first rise of the day and one of the first big spectator points. After that the lakes come one after another, Bde Maka Ska and Lake Harriet on wide parkways, from kilometre eleven the Minnehaha Parkway through quiet residential streets, and Lake Nokomis at kilometre 21. To there the course stays gently rolling and fast.

Past Minnehaha Park the route turns onto West River Parkway along the bluff above the Mississippi and crosses the river at kilometre 31 on the Franklin Avenue bridge. On the Saint Paul side it climbs via Mississippi River Boulevard onto Summit Avenue, and that is where the race is settled: between kilometre 34 and 37 the dead-straight boulevard of mansions gains a good 40 metres, averaging about one and a half percent, but without a break. Above that the avenue runs out flat to the Cathedral of Saint Paul before John Ireland Boulevard drops some 25 metres over the last kilometre and a half to the finish on the grounds of the Minnesota State Capitol.

In early October the autumn colour along the parkways does much of the work – the course spends more time beside lakes and the river than between buildings. It has been run since 1982, around 7,000 runners finish it, more than 300,000 spectators line the route, and entries sell out. The date itself is a subject: heat forced the cancellation of the 2023 Sunday races, and from 2027 the weekend moves to mid-October, which makes 2026 the last edition on the first weekend of the month.

Pacing Strategy

The first thirty kilometres invite you to run too fast. Three quarters of the course is flat, the parkways are wide and closed, and on balance the route loses more height than it gains before the river – goal pace feels cheap out here. That is exactly the trap: every second banked around the lakes, Summit Avenue collects back with interest.

The race is settled between kilometre 34 and 37. The climb is shallow enough that it barely looks like one and long enough to hurt on tired legs. Switch from pace to effort here: ten to twenty seconds per kilometre slower is normal on this ramp, not a collapse. Solve it evenly and you still have something at the top – the flat run to the cathedral and the drop to the Capitol give you a fast finish.

The second variable is the weather, and it is less predictable than the profile. The eight o'clock start averages around eight to ten degrees, yet recent editions have been conspicuously warm and 2023 was cancelled outright. On Summit Avenue you are in late-morning sun with little shade. Hang your fluid and pacing plan on the actual forecast rather than on the season.

Training plan for Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon: 12-week build

Plan for three to five and a half hours as an age-group runner, inside a six-and-a-half-hour limit. Physiologically this is an evenly aerobic road marathon: 189 metres of climbing across 42 kilometres is little, there is no change of surface and no passage that breaks your rhythm. The difficulty lies purely in the distribution – the only rise worth the name comes after kilometre 34.

Preparation aims at exactly that. Long runs that turn progressive in the final third reproduce the race situation; you get closer still if that final third runs over gently rising ground. One to two percent is plenty, Summit Avenue asks no more – what matters is that the legs are already tired when it begins.

Speed you build as for any flat road marathon: marathon-pace blocks of two to three times twenty minutes plus threshold work, all on tarmac. The course is hard-surfaced and closed throughout, so the volume belongs mostly on the road rather than on soft forest trails. And because the last kilometre and a half falls away to the Capitol, a few runs with a downhill component under fatigue will protect the quadriceps at the finish.

That leaves conditions. Early October in Minnesota can deliver either: a morning near freezing, or a day when heat becomes a safety issue. Dress in layers for the long wait in the corral, and take some heat adaptation into the final weeks if the forecast turns warm. Travelling from central Europe, treat the seven-hour time difference seriously too – eight o'clock local meets your body clock in the middle of the night.