Blue Nose Marathon

The Blue Nose Marathon is Atlantic Canada's largest annual running and walking event, held every year in Halifax, Nova Scotia on the Victoria Day long weekend. Known locally as "The People's Marathon," it welcomes runners and walkers of every ability across a full weekend of distances: 2K and 4K youth runs, a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, a marathon team relay, and the full 42.2km marathon. The event has run since the early 2000s and enters its 24th year in 2027, and the title sponsorship has changed hands over the years — most recently from Scotiabank to Emera and now to Medavie, whose name currently appears on official branding as the "Medavie Blue Nose Marathon." The Marathon starts and finishes at the Emera Oval on Cogswell Street, crossing the Macdonald or Angus L. Macdonald Bridge into Dartmouth before returning to showcase the beautiful Halifax harbour, Lake Banook, the vibrant North End, Point Pleasant Park, and the Halifax waterfront. The course is acknowledged as hilly in sections but manageable for a wide range of finishers, and it is both a Boston Marathon qualifier and an Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group World Rankings qualifier. Race weekend also includes an expo, live entertainment, and community cheer stations along the route. Registration for race weekend runs through Race Roster, with tiered pricing that increases as the event approaches. Kit pick-up and the expo take place on the Friday and Saturday of race weekend at the Zatzman Sportsplex, with the marathon, half marathon, and team relay run on the Sunday and the shorter distances run the day before.