4-Day Mississippi Blues Marathon Training Plan

The 2027 Mississippi Blues Marathon is scheduled for February 20, 2027, so the 18-week window opens around October 17, 2026. Weeks one through 17 keep the normal weekly rhythm and Sunday long run; only the final race week shifts to the event's actual weekday. If that date has already passed, do not compress 18 weeks of mileage into a shorter window.

Run part of your Mississippi Blues Marathon long-run mileage on terrain that rises and falls. Hold effort steady on climbs, let pace change, and practice cresting without surging. Train for the Mississippi Blues Marathon by running loops instead of lines. The marathon covers the half marathon course twice, so the single most useful workout is a rolling five to seven mile loop repeated three or four times at goal effort, which teaches you exactly what your first pass costs you on the second.

Four run days can be enough when 15 miles in week one is not a sudden jump and you can protect the long run most weeks. This schedule builds to a 40-mile peak and a 20-mile long run. A runner chasing an aggressive time or already supporting more volume may fit a higher-mileage plan better.

It rolls. The Mississippi Blues Marathon sits inside a band of about 110 feet between its lowest and highest points, so there is no long climb, but the grade changes often and you cover the same ground twice. Runners who train on flat roads tend to find the second lap much harder than the first.

Yes. Live blues musicians play at the expo, at the start and finish, and at multiple points along the route, which is the reason the race exists in the form it does. With a marathon field of a few hundred, those bands are often the only company you have on the second lap.