Fresno's Fastest Growing 10K Delivers a Flat, Fast November Morning

The Two Cities Marathon 10K rolls through Fresno on a dead-flat, out-and-back road course that has drawn a field nearly 50% larger over just three years — and in 2025, runners ran it under calm skies with a field median of 1:08:00. Whether you're chasing a personal best or simply logging a strong autumn effort, the numbers suggest this race rewards those who show up ready.

By the numbers

The field has grown steadily and meaningfully: 561 finishers in 2023, 581 in 2024, and 819 in 2025 — a 46% jump across three editions. Women have made up an increasing share of that growth, rising from 368 finishers in 2023 to 477 in 2025. Median times have shifted with the field's evolution: the overall median dipped from 1:11:47 (2023) to 1:08:00 (2025), with 2024's 1:13:49 sitting as the slower outlier — a year that started at 71°F with slightly more humidity. Men's medians have ranged from 1:01:33 to 1:05:04; women's from 1:12:42 to 1:18:48 across the three editions.

How the course runs

The course is flat — genuinely flat. Net elevation change is zero feet, with no sustained climb or descent anywhere on the route, making it as honest a road 10K as you'll find. The 2025 fade curve shows the field running its opening mile at a 10:13/mi median pace, then settling to 11:04/mi over the remaining 5.2 miles through the finish. That roughly 50-second-per-mile differential is characteristic of a mass-participation 10K where runners go out with early enthusiasm and find their true pace across the back half.

Pacing patterns

Going out faster than you can sustain is the norm at road races of this distance, and the 2025 data reflects exactly that: the median runner opened at 10:13/mi and averaged 11:04/mi over the remaining distance. The flatness of the course means there's no terrain-driven explanation for the slowdown — it's simply the natural arc of effort across a 10K for most runners. The 2023 edition, run in cold conditions (around 46°F at the gun), produced the fastest men's median of the three years at 1:05:04 and the fastest women's winning time at 0:39:11, suggesting that cooler temperatures do favor the field.

The weather question

The 2025 race ran at 64–74°F with clear skies and light wind — pleasant but warm enough to affect late-race pace. The 2023 cold-morning edition (36–46°F) produced the sharpest times across the board. The 2026 forecast of 69–79°F with clear skies and ~3 mph wind closely mirrors 2025 conditions, so runners should plan accordingly: times similar to 2025 are the reasonable baseline, with the warmer end of the forecast the primary variable to watch.

What it takes

In 2025, breaking 52:49 put a runner in the top 10% of the field. The top quarter finished under 58:46, and the bottom quarter ran slower than 1:22:56. Winning times in 2025 were 34:42 (men) and 39:38 (women). The 2023 men's winning time of 33:32 remains the fastest on record across these three editions.

What to watch

Field size: With 819 finishers in 2025 after two years near 560, the trajectory points toward continued growth. Whether the 2026 edition crosses 900 finishers is a genuine storyline.

Women's share: Women have represented a majority of finishers in every listed edition and are closing in on 60% of the field. That trend has only accelerated.

Conditions and the median: The 2024 edition — the warmest start temperature on record here at 71°F — produced the slowest overall median of the three years. With 2026 forecast to be similarly warm, how the expanded field handles the temperature will shape the aggregate results.

Sub-hour contention: The top-25% cutoff has ranged from 58:46 to 1:01:57 across editions. In a good-weather year, a sub-hour finish lands comfortably inside the top quarter — a meaningful benchmark for competitive age-groupers to target.