St. Joseph, Missouri Marathon
St. Joseph, MO
- Marathon, Marathon Relay, Half Marathon, 10K, 5K
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
The St. Joseph, Missouri Marathon is an event you will not want to miss! The event features a beautiful historic parkway system end-to-end route, and is hosted by the St. Joseph Sports Commission in partnership with Junior League of St. Joseph. The race will feature five different distances for participants … MORE
Local Historical Weather (Sep 26):
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
| H (°F) | 86 | 82 | 84 | 74 | 94 |
| L (°F) | 50 | 49 | 53 | 39 | 51 |
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Fun Time at the St. Joseph's Marathon
I chose this race because I had business in the Des Moines area, and this would be a great way to knock off the state of Missouri. The packet pickup … MORE
I chose this race because I had business in the Des Moines area, and this would be a great way to knock off the state of Missouri. The packet pickup was a breeze. I do not remember seeing a lot of vendors. The finisher shirt is long sleeve. A significant number of the runners ran in the 5k, 10k, or half, while the marathon consisted of 87 runners. There was plenty of parking near the start and finish area, with plenty of toilets. The course has a nice mixture of inclines, declines and flat areas. The volunteers who came out and manned the aid stations and blocked traffic were supportive. The course had water and gatorade. Surprisingly, the course also had a high number of gel stations, especially in the second half of the marathon. The finisher medal was nice. The after party consisted of a sandwich and beer. Overall, this was a good quality race, and I would recommend it for those runners needing the state of Missouri.
Great Challenging Marathon
Very, very hilly but pretty. I knew it was hilly going into it so it was a fun challenge rather than a dreadful surprise. Great production. Hundreds of volunteers along … MORE
Very, very hilly but pretty. I knew it was hilly going into it so it was a fun challenge rather than a dreadful surprise.
Great production. Hundreds of volunteers along course in high-viz yellow shirts assisting at intersections, water stations. I would recommend to anyone looking for great training race (hills) or anyone not trying to PR.
There's some hills...
I'm torn between 3 and 4 shoes for difficulty. There's over 800 feet of elevation (someone told me a thousand). It's not a flat course. There are some long hills … MORE
I’m torn between 3 and 4 shoes for difficulty. There’s over 800 feet of elevation (someone told me a thousand). It’s not a flat course. There are some long hills and some short ones, maybe a roller in there somewhere, but for the most part, no, this is not “a collection of rolling hills adding up”. The nice thing is the course consists of multiple out-and-back segments in sort of a script-Y-shaped route. Sounds weird, but it works. Really well. There’s time to make up whatever you lost on the uphill parts because the volunteers are bringing the energy, the 9 aid stations on the half are spaced wonderfully and located where you need them, and it’s a nice mix of road-beside-greenspace, downtown and residential neighborhoods.
It’s hard to overstate how much St. Jo brought it. Of the 9 water stations, at least 8 had Gatorade, Terra the MC was a great at keeping the energy high as people crossed. There are some lonely stretches but when you do come up on volunteers or spectators they showed up. The HS drums were practicing, and I still think they should bring them over to play by the course. Great exposure for them and great energy for the race. Several aid stations had high energy music playing that you could hear from a way out. The wonderful ladies who set up the Tequilla/fireball aid station, you came along just when I needed you most, thanks for doing that shot with me (the guy in the body armor). It helped me keep a hard pace and I went on to PR. By a lot. I saw at least three aid stations with portapotties, but since I wasn’t really looking there may have been more.
Great location for a finish, in the little park in front of some government buildings where IVs, pork sandwiches, several different unique drinks and a massage station were waiting.
Swag was a great half-size towel with the race logo on it. It’s already been used to dry off after the next day’s race. The shirt is a long sleeve cotton that’s stylishly designed and is going to get some real use come cooler months as a post-race shirt. Medal was gorgeous and builds off the first two years medals. Truly a brilliant design, and I hope they keep that trend going with future years.
Massive PR this year, beating my course record by 34:12 (thanks ccruiz03 and Pacer Katrina!) and bringing a new half PR back to MO from Bill Snyder Highway Half (a winner of a race in our rival Kansas) by a whopping 23:10 faster finish (Thanks to ccruiz03 for all those extra summer miles!). If I can do it, you can do it, so come out to St. Joseph and see what they have to offer. Bonus, great pizza withing walking distance from the finish line at Il Lazzarone if you don’t want deep fried port cutlet sandwich. Some of the best in the state.
St Jo can bring it!
St Jo knows how to party. Great setup in front of city hall. Massages, IVs, grilled food, energy drink and a local band. Lots of incentive to stick around after … MORE
St Jo knows how to party. Great setup in front of city hall. Massages, IVs, grilled food, energy drink and a local band. Lots of incentive to stick around after the race. MC (also a board member) did well to keep the energy pumped.
Medal was wonderfully designed with a horse around the logo of the race, which was the original medal from last year. Date is on the medal and the ribbon is nicely integrated. Honestly, I can’t do it justice here, but it is very well designed, not something that was thrown together by someone who doesn’t even race. Shirt was nice — Long-sleeved medium to heavy weight for a T. Not sweatshirt heft though by any chance, so I could see wearing it on a cold race.
Now the race itself was redesigned this year to avoid a much-hated hill from what I’m told. The unfortunate side effect is the race measured long which they assured me will be fixed for next year. I had 13.4, some people had .3 and .5. At 13.1 according to strava I was withing reach of a PR, so despite the hills it can be a fast course. Save some in the tank thought, because what goes out on this out-and-back/loop combo must come back and the opening hill is much less fun on mile 12 when you’re now going UP it. A great deal of fun from beginning to end, and this is absolutely a repeat race. Because it was long, I did have to deduct a shoe for production, which I hated to do since they had a good reason for redesign, which I suspect will be fixed next year and back up to properly reflect how great this race is.
Special shout out to the lovely lady who made her own aid station with Fireball. Sure came in handy nursing that injury. And I almost PR’ed because of you.
Challanging but great event.
For the first year of this event I was extremely impressed. The staging area, start and finish was very well done. The water stations were plentiful, and volunteers were friendly … MORE
For the first year of this event I was extremely impressed. The staging area, start and finish was very well done. The water stations were plentiful, and volunteers were friendly and helpful. The course is challanging with some long steep hills. I have run 40 marathons and hats off to the organizers for a very well run event.
Hope You Like Hills!
This was the inaugural St Joseph Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K, & 5K. This isn’t to be confused with the old Pony Express Marathon as I don’t think that particular race … MORE
This was the inaugural St Joseph Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K, & 5K. This isn’t to be confused with the old Pony Express Marathon as I don’t think that particular race exist any longer.
This particular event was a top notch run from the race organizers to the volunteers manning water stations, traffic intersections, packet pick-up, and everything & everyone else involved. The course was very well laid out with plenty of scenery regardless of which distance one chose. I ran the Half Marathon, and hills were plentiful. In this case, what goes down must come up. I would highly suggest hill training a few weeks before race day. You won’t regret it. Thank goodness there were plenty of water & Gatorade available. St. Joe has some beautiful neighborhoods which remain hidden unless you get to run through them. Weather can be iffy in September, but this day was semi-cool, sunny & very humid. Runners taking 2 or more hours into the run I’m sure endured the rain that moved in. This was a fun run, and more than likely, I shall do it again. It is a challenge, but that’s half the reason to run….isn’t it? LOL!!