Delaware Marathon, Relay & Half Marathon

Course highlights

All races in the event begin at Wilmington’s Tubman Garrett Riverfront Park, located downtown near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, right next to the Wilmington Amtrak train station. From there, those running the half marathon follow exactly the same course as the full marathon, along a loop that runs through the city’s Brandywine and Wawaset parks, along the Bancroft and Kentmere Parkway roads, and through Wilmington’s “Little Italy” district. Those running the 13.1-mile half marathon make the course loop a single time, while those running the full, 26.2-mile marathon run the loop twice. Flat early, hills later. Mostly flat and fast for the first three miles, which take runners southward away from the starting line to a stretch that winds along the pathways along the river, the course hits its first hill between mile markers 3 and 4, as runners are making their way past Christina Park through Wilimington’s downtown neighborhoods. After passing through mile 4, runners cross the bridge over the river at King Street and along Glen Avenue and North Park Drive, for the stretch of the race that takes the field through Brandywine Park and past the Brandywine Zoo. The course is mostly flat through this stretch, as runners cross the river again over the bridge just before Augustine Road, and make their way along the paved pathways through the park on the southern bank of the river. Hills start in the second half. The course hits its first big hill as runners hit the half-way point of the half marathon route, continuing through the park until they meet up with South Park Drive and turn onto the Bancroft Parkway. Here, runners turn left and head south along the parkway, running alongside the park median in between the two lanes of Bancroft Parkway. There’s a downhill stretch where the elevation drops about 100 feet between the mile 10 and mile 12 markers along South Park Drive, and then the course turns south onto North King Street, which runners follow all the way back in to the finish at Tubman Garrett Park.