Fresno's Flat Two Cities Marathon Is Growing Fast — and the Data Show Exactly How to Run It

The Two Cities Marathon rolls through Fresno on a genuinely flat course — net elevation change of just one foot over 26.2 miles — yet the field's pacing data tell a clear story about where races are won and lost on this road. With 716 finishers in 2025, up from 481 in 2023, the event is building momentum, and the numbers across three editions offer a detailed map for anyone toeing the line on November 1.

By the numbers

Field size has grown steadily: 481 finishers in 2023, 550 in 2024, 716 in 2025 — a 49% increase over three years. Women's participation has grown alongside it, from 149 to 160 to 210 finishers across those editions. The overall median finish time has moved modestly: 4:25:01 in 2023, 4:19:48 in 2024, 4:21:14 in 2025. Men's medians have followed a similar arc — 4:15:56, 4:07:24, 4:11:30 — while women's medians have held in a tighter band: 4:47:48, 4:44:59, 4:48:27. The field is getting larger without getting dramatically faster or slower, which suggests a healthy broadening of the participant base.

How the course runs

The course is flat — no sustained climb or descent of any consequence anywhere on the route. What shapes the race instead is the field's own pacing behavior, and the 2025 segment data are instructive.

The field runs its fastest early — 8:49/mi through mile one — and holds reasonably well through the half at 9:17/mi. The drift accelerates after mile 18, and the segment ending at mile 25.2 reaches 12:35/mi, the slowest point of the race. The final mile rebounds to 10:09/mi, a pattern consistent with runners digging in for the finish. The practical lesson: the course gives nothing away topographically, so the fade from mile 18 onward is almost entirely a function of pacing discipline and fitness in the first half.

Pacing patterns

Back-half slowdowns are the norm at every mass-participation marathon, and Two Cities is no exception. In 2025, 86% of finishers ran a positive split, with an average second-half slowdown of 15.5%. In 2024 the figure was nearly identical at 15.4%, with 88% positive splitting. Only 66 runners in 2025 and 34 in 2024 ran negative splits. The consistency of these numbers across two very different weather years — warm in 2024, warm again in 2025 — suggests this is the field's natural pacing shape on this course, not a weather artifact.

The weather question

Two Cities has run in a range of conditions: 36–46°F with 76% humidity in 2023, 61–71°F in 2024, and 64–74°F in 2025. The 2023 cold produced the fastest men's winning time on record in this dataset — 2:11:34 — while the warmer 2024 and 2025 editions saw winning times of 2:27:10 and 2:20:24 respectively. The 2026 forecast of 67–77°F with haze and 58% humidity sits close to the 2025 profile, so runners can reasonably use last year's segment paces as a planning baseline.

What it takes

The top 10% in 2025 finished in 3:16:13 or faster; the top 25% in 3:46:44 or better. The 75th percentile was 5:00:00 flat. Winning times across the three editions range from 2:11:34 (men, 2023) to 2:50:22 (women, 2023) on the slower end of the women's results.

What to watch

The field's growth from 481 to 716 finishers in three years is the clearest trend in the data — whether 2026 crosses 800 finishers is a genuine storyline. Women's participation has more than doubled since 2023 in raw numbers; whether that share of the field continues to grow bears watching. And with forecast conditions nearly matching 2025, there's a reasonable basis to expect the men's winning time to challenge the 2:20:24 mark set last year.