On February 9, 2020, Brett Morley won the Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans Marathon in 2:27:46, the last full marathon the city has held. The New Orleans Marathon returns on November 14, 2026, on a new double-loop course through City Park, under a new organizer, and in November rather than the old February date.
Why the marathon disappeared after 2020
New Orleans had held its full marathon in February before the pandemic, including 2019, when Ryan Hendricks and Kayla Campasino won the men's and women's races. The race hasn't run since Morley's edition the following year.
The 2021 race was cancelled for the pandemic. Rock 'n' Roll returned in February 2022 with only a 5K, a 10K and a half marathon. The race relocated to the University of New Orleans and Lakeshore Drive, the same lakefront road the 2026 marathon now turns around on. More than 12,000 runners still registered for that shortened weekend.
That September, the Ironman Group cancelled the following year's race and pulled the event from its schedule through 2030. The company said it could not find a way back into the French Quarter. The marathon's route had run through the Quarter for years before the pandemic. The organizer's statement said there were "no acceptable alternative settings that live up to the historic qualities of the race." Rock 'n' Roll's shortened 2022 edition had already been moved off that route. NOLA.com reported at the time that the dispute also involved police staffing, though the organizer's own statement didn't name that as the reason.
Where the data disagrees. The organizers give three different lengths for the gap: seven years on the official race site, six years in New Orleans & Company's own announcement, five years on Premier Event Management's page. Counting from the last full marathon, the gap is closer to six years and nine months. The clearest description is the one the race results support: the city's first full marathon since February 2020.
What's different this time
New Orleans & Company announced the marathon's return in December 2025. Premier Event Management presents the race alongside WELLNXT and the NOLA City Park Conservancy, as part of a new weekend called Fit Fête. The weekend is built around a wellness festival at Tad Gormley Stadium, with a half marathon, 5K and marathon relay for runners who want a shorter distance or a team event.
The new course runs between City Park and the lakefront rather than through the French Quarter, the route Rock 'n' Roll said in 2022 it could not return to.
No field-size target for 2026 has been published yet. Registration for the marathon costs $150 through October 31, after which the price rises. The course is USATF-certified and will count as a Boston Marathon qualifier. Runners chasing a qualifying time can check it against the standard on 42cal's Boston qualifier calculator.
Race-morning weather: the one number that matters
The new race runs in November, where the old one ran in February. NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for Louis Armstrong International Airport show what that costs at the start line. A normal 7:30 AM race morning now runs about six to seven degrees warmer than the old February date, with a similarly higher dew point. The airport sits about 15 miles from City Park, so the normals describe the region rather than a measurement taken on the course. These are 30-year averages, and a single race day can land well outside them.
November also brings slightly less rain than the old date, a normal 3.87 inches for the month against February's 4.13.
A 2012 study in PLoS One analyzed six major marathons, including Boston, Chicago and New York. Running speed peaked at temperatures between roughly 39 and 50°F, depending on the runner's level, and fell once temperatures climbed past that. More runners drop out as temperatures climb past that range too. Both the old February start and the new November start sit above it on a normal day, and November sits further above it. 42cal's guide to marathon heat breaks down what each added degree costs a finishing time.
The course and its lap-two cutoff
The marathon runs a double loop between the New Orleans Museum of Art and City Park's Roosevelt Mall, with its farthest point a U-turn on Lakeshore Drive along Lake Pontchartrain. The route passes under the Bayou St. John Bridge, the only bridge the course page names. The official site describes every course as flat and fast, with no published elevation profile. Running the loop twice brings runners back through City Park, past the relay exchange at 11.82 miles, before they head out again for the second lap.
Aid stations line the route roughly every 1.5 miles on the marathon, half marathon and 5K courses. Exact aid-station locations have not been published, and Premier's athlete guide was still listed as coming soon. A marathon relay covers the same double loop in five legs, handing off along Lakeshore Drive and inside City Park.
Runners must start the second lap by 11:45 AM, four hours and 15 minutes after the 7:30 AM start. The official pages don't give the mileage of the lap change. The lap change sits somewhere in City Park, past the 11.82-mile relay exchange. That puts the cutoff at faster than about 21:30 per mile, or about 19:30 per mile if the change falls near halfway. That is looser than the marathon's overall seven-hour limit, which works out to about 16 minutes per mile. The half marathon carries its own, shorter cutoff, four and a half hours after the last half-marathon wave starts. On Pace Race provides a marathon sweeper for runners near the back of the field. Runners planning splits around the cutoff can check the pace math on 42cal's pace calculator.
A finisher near the back of the field meets both changes at once. The lap-two cutoff comes as a normal November day warms toward its 2 PM peak, and at noon the normal is 67.7°F against 60.5°F on the old February date.
Further reading
- New Orleans Marathon official site. Registration, pricing and the full race schedule.
- Official course page. Turn-by-turn directions for both laps.
- New Orleans & Company's announcement. The December 11, 2025 press release announcing the marathon's return.
- NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals for New Orleans. The hourly and monthly data behind the weather comparison.
- El Helou et al., "Impact of Environmental Parameters on Marathon Running Performance," PLoS One (2012). The study behind the optimal-temperature range.
