2027 ORRRC Xenia Marathon, Half-Marathon, and 10K

Xenia, Ohio, has been putting on this race for more than half a century — the marathon is in its 59th year, the half-marathon in its 37th. It's an Ohio River Road Runners Club production, and it feels like one: a small-town race that still pulls runners from roughly 13 states and brings about a third of them back in later years.

The half starts and finishes at the Xenia YMCA, drops into downtown, tours a few of the town's neighborhoods, then uses a mix of scenic rail-trail and quiet residential streets to bring you home. It's a flat, fast course — the kind that flatters a PR attempt — and the concentric layout means every distance shares the same start line and the same finish.

Late March in southwest Ohio runs 38–57°F, so expect a cool, honest morning. A 13:45-per-mile cutoff keeps the day moving, and it ends with finisher medals at every distance and a post-race party with free food. Around 550 runners finish across the weekend's three races; the ones who keep coming back know something the rest of us are still finding out.