12-Week St. Jude Memphis Marathon Training Plan

Memphis, TNDecember 5, 2026

Start around September 12, 2026. The calendar below gives each phase a real date, then the course guidance shows where to make the build specific to St. Jude Memphis Marathon.

The St. Jude Memphis Marathon exists to raise money, and it does it at a scale that reframes the whole weekend: more than $15.8 million in the last edition, with over 22,000 participants and supporters across the weekend's events. The marathon itself is the smaller piece of that, with 1,973 finishers in 2025.

Race day
December 5, 2026
Start window
September 12, 2026
Runway
12 weeks
Course
Rolling Hills · Mostly Loop
Plan choice
Current training

Does this window fit your starting point?

Use this window when your recent training is steady and the opening week will not be a mileage jump. If you are returning after a long break, twelve weeks is too little room to rebuild and peak at the same time.

  • Your weekly mileage has been consistent for the last six to eight weeks.
  • You have completed recent long runs and do not need to rebuild from three easy miles.
  • You can protect the same number of run days from week one through race week.
  • You are prepared to begin race-specific work early instead of using a long base phase.

The 12-week St. Jude Memphis Marathon calendar

These dates define the job of each phase. Your current mileage, recent longest run, experience, goal, and available days still decide the actual workouts inside them.

Settle

Weeks 1–2

Sep 13, 2026–Sep 26, 2026

Hold close to your current volume, establish the weekly rhythm, and make sure the opening load is honest.

Build

Weeks 3–7

Sep 27, 2026–Oct 31, 2026

Grow the long run and weekly work with step-back weeks intact. There is no room to repay missed mileage.

Peak

Weeks 8–10

Nov 1, 2026–Nov 21, 2026

Complete the most race-specific long runs, rehearse fueling, and practice the terrain that will decide the final 10K.

Taper

Weeks 11–12

Nov 22, 2026–Dec 5, 2026

Reduce volume, keep the routine familiar, and arrive on race day without trying to squeeze in one more big week.

Make the window specific to St. Jude Memphis Marathon.

Course-specific work starts early in a 12-week build. Put the race's terrain and expected conditions into long runs once the opening weeks feel controlled, without adding extra hard days.

Read the full race guide

How to train for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon

Train for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon on gently rolling ground and get comfortable holding effort while your pace wanders fifteen or twenty seconds a mile. With about 700 feet of climbing spread across a course that never rises more than 87 feet above its low point, this is a race decided by rhythm rather than by any single climb.

The bigger training problem is the calendar. A December race means your long runs happen from August through October, which across most of the country is the hottest, most humid stretch of the year, and then you race in the cold. Your body will be heat-adapted for a race morning near 48F.

Plan for that gap. Make sure the last three or four long runs happen in genuinely cold conditions so your pacing, clothing and fueling get calibrated to the day you'll actually get. Gels behave differently at 48F than they do at 88F, and so do you.

Practically: pick a rolling route instead of a flat one, run the long runs by effort, and add two or three sessions of hilly progression work in the final six weeks so late-race undulation meets legs that have seen it. The rises here are small enough that hill repeats aren't the answer. Continuous rolling is.

St. Jude Memphis Marathon course facts

Course
Mostly Loop · Rolling Hills · Road/Pavement
Elevation gain / loss
703 ft gain, 706 ft loss
Highest / lowest point
306 ft / 219 ft
Marathon finishers
1,973 in 2025 (mid-size field)
Boston qualifier
Certified Boston qualifying course
Finishers running a qualifying time
4.9% in 2025
Typical race morning
48°F at the start, 78% humidity, clear
Race day high / low
55°F / 37°F on average

Sources

Let your current training decide the actual plan.

Current mileage, recent longest run, marathon experience, goal, and available days determine which plans rank first. After you choose and subscribe, Stride dates every workout through December 5, 2026.

Build My Plan

12-week St. Jude Memphis Marathon plan questions, answered.

When should I start a 12-week St. Jude Memphis Marathon plan?

The 2026 St. Jude Memphis Marathon is scheduled for December 5, 2026, so the 12-week window opens around September 12, 2026. Treat that as the outside edge of the window, then line week one up with the plan's normal weekly rhythm.

Is a 12-week plan long enough for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon?

Use this window when your recent training is steady and the opening week will not be a mileage jump. If you are returning after a long break, twelve weeks is too little room to rebuild and peak at the same time. The course does not change the opening load you can handle, so choose from your current mileage and recent longest run before adding race-specific terrain.

How should I prepare for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon course in 12 weeks?

Course-specific work starts early in a 12-week build. Put the race's terrain and expected conditions into long runs once the opening weeks feel controlled, without adding extra hard days. Train for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon on gently rolling ground and get comfortable holding effort while your pace wanders fifteen or twenty seconds a mile. With about 700 feet of climbing spread across a course that never rises more than 87 feet above its low point, this is a race decided by rhythm rather than by any single climb.

What if the 12-week St. Jude Memphis Marathon window has already started?

Do not double weeks or cram missed mileage into the remaining calendar. Use your current mileage, recent longest run, experience, goal, and available days to choose a plan that can enter at an appropriate point while preserving the taper.

Is the St. Jude Memphis Marathon flat?

Not quite. The course is low relief but constantly rolling, gaining about 700 feet across 26.2 miles while staying inside an 87 foot elevation band. There are no real hills, but there aren't many stretches of true flat either, and that undulation is why finishing times run slower than the profile suggests.

Is the St. Jude Memphis Marathon a good Boston qualifier?

Only modestly. 4.9% of finishers ran a Boston qualifying time in 2025, 4.3% in 2024 and 5.9% in 2023. Cool December weather helps, but the constant rolling costs more than the small elevation numbers imply. The course has no net drop, so the BAA's downhill adjustment does not apply to times run here.

Put the 12-week window against your actual race.

Each page counts back from race day, maps the 4 phases to real dates, and applies the window to that course and its typical conditions.