20-Week Two Cities Marathon Training Plan

The 2026 Two Cities Marathon is scheduled for November 1, 2026, so the 20-week window opens around June 14, 2026. Treat that as the outside edge of the window, then line week one up with the plan's normal weekly rhythm.

Use the longer window to make the early build calmer, not to add five months of hard training. The plan should begin close to your current load, hold most running easy, and delay the biggest race-specific work until the middle of the cycle. 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.

Build general durability first. Add the race's hills, flat sustained running, downhill exposure, heat, or humidity in layers after the weekly rhythm is stable, then make the final long runs the most course-specific. Training for the Two Cities Marathon is pace precision rather than strength. On a course with 317 feet of total gain, every mile asks for the same thing, so your limiting factor is your ability to hold one number for three-plus hours. That is a different skill from being able to run a fast 20-miler.

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.

Very. The whole course stays inside a 48-foot elevation band, between about 335 and 383 feet, with 317 feet of total climbing and the same amount of descent. There is no meaningful hill anywhere on the route. The organizers call it flat and fast, and the elevation numbers back that up.

It starts and finishes at Clovis Community College and runs the border between Fresno and Clovis, California. The route covers north Fresno streets, passes through Woodward Park, and heads into Old Town Clovis before returning to the college. The start is 6:30 a.m. in early November.