the marathon that came back: what the 3-year hiatus means for 2026

By PaceKit Team · Updated April 2026

The Illinois Marathon full distance was dropped from 2021 through 2023. The race weekend continued with the half marathon, 10K, and 5K, but the 26.2-mile event was suspended due to challenges securing enough public safety personnel (police, fire, EMS) to staff the full marathon course, which crosses 311 intersections across three communities.

The marathon came back in 2024 with 701 finishers. In 2025, it grew to 895. For 2026, the race has been designated the RRCA Central Region Marathon Championship, which is a meaningful credential that signals both the quality of the event and the commitment to the full distance going forward.

The hiatus matters for two reasons. First, the BQ rate data is limited. With only two years of post-comeback results (7.1% in 2024, 10.8% in 2025), the race doesn't have the deep BQ history that Glass City or Carmel can point to. The course is flat enough to produce strong BQ times (85 feet of elevation change, Course Score 99.12), but the field is still rebuilding after three years without the full distance. Second, the race earned the RRCA Championship in its third year back, which suggests the organizers have addressed the staffing and logistical challenges that caused the hiatus.

For runners evaluating this race: the infrastructure is solid, the course is legitimately flat, the reviews are excellent (5 stars on FindMyMarathon from 47 reviews), and the 2026 RRCA Championship designation is a stamp of quality. The full marathon is back, and the trajectory suggests it's back for good. The only honest caveat is that the field is still small (~900 to 1,200 finishers), which means fewer people to run with and thinner crowd support on the marathon-only sections of the course.