Race calendar · November 2026
69 marathons across the US in November 2026, sorted by date. Which weekends are busiest, what the fields actually run, entry fees, and where each one starts.
November sits in the heart of fall marathon season across the United States. Cooler air has arrived across the northern half of the country, making conditions genuinely runnable, while the South and Southwest remain warmer and more variable. This is a month where weather can shift quickly, and race-day conditions can differ sharply from what training weeks looked like.
The calendar is dense, with races clustering hard in the first two weekends and then thinning toward Thanksgiving. That late-month holiday complicates travel and taper planning in ways no other marathon month does. Book accommodation early and build recovery time around travel, not just around the finish line.
November marathons reward runners who trained through summer and stayed consistent into fall. A full summer of base work followed by a proper build gets you here ready. If your long runs stalled in September, this month will expose it at 26.2 miles, so be honest about your fitness before you register.
What the field actually runs
How we calculate these stats: RunSesh calculates these figures from the most recent published results of past editions, sourced from RunSignup. We show aggregates only: field size, winning and median times, and the cutoff. We never publish individual finisher tables. Last updated Oct 16, 2026.
When in November
Marathons are not spread evenly across November. Here is how the calendar actually falls, weekend by weekend, which is the part worth knowing before you book a trip or plan a taper around one.
By the numbers
The November marathons that stand out on the numbers: the biggest field, and the longest unbroken run of editions.
It is the fullest month of the year for the Marathon. November carries 69 of them, more than any other month, so you get the widest choice of dates, locations and course types without having to travel far for one.
Layers you can shed early are the standard answer, but the right answer depends on where you race. The Northeast and Midwest can be genuinely cold at the gun, cold enough for gloves and a throwaway top. Florida and Texas races may feel more like a warm fall morning. Check the forecast for your specific city in race week, not a month out.
Yes, and more than runners expect. The final weekend of November draws fewer races than the middle weekends, and flights and hotels fill with non-running holiday traffic. If you choose a late-November race, book travel before you finalize your entry. Taper week and holiday meals also collide, which is worth planning around deliberately.
A standard marathon build runs roughly sixteen to twenty weeks, which puts the start of serious training in late June or July. That means building through summer heat and arriving at November ready to race. Runners who begin structured training in September are likely to find the distance harder than the month deserves.
Conditions in November favor it in much of the country. Cool temperatures reduce the physiological cost of holding pace across 26.2 miles. Across the editions with published results, the spread between median finishing times runs wide, which reflects how differently courses and conditions behave region to region. A flat course in cool air is a different race than a hilly one in leftover warmth.
Race directors avoid the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, which compresses the available dates. The first and second weekends of November are the most logistically clean, and organizers know runners can travel and recover before the holiday. This front-loading is predictable every year, so if you want more options, those early weekends are where to look.
The busiest weekend is November 7 and November 8, with 19 of them, 14 of those on Saturday, November 7. Another 2 fall on a weekday, which is worth knowing if you are traveling for one.
Across the 30 of these November marathons with published results from past editions, the median finisher ran 4:28:56, and the median winning time was 2:54:04. So anything under 4:28:56 puts you in the faster half of a typical field. That is the middle of these RunSignup fields, walkers and charity entrants included, not a national average.
The median one finished 93 runners, across the 30 of these November marathons with published results from past editions. Most are far smaller than the big-city events people picture, which means less crowding at the start and a friendlier field, with a last recorded finisher at 6:52:39.
Florida has 9, North Carolina has 6, Texas has 6, Virginia has 6, Maryland has 4. If you are willing to travel, those are the states where a November weekend gives you the most to choose from.
Yes, 8 races around the United States get you off the pavement: 6 are trail races, and 2 mix road and trail.
