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The city behind the course

A Minneapolis weekend

Start with the places the marathon actually passes.

The route's local signatures

Meet the architecture and landscape along the course. Use these places to get to know the city before deciding how to spend your time on your feet.

Capella Tower

Near mile 0.3

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 236 meters.

Wells Fargo Center

Near mile 0.4

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 236 meters.

IDS Center

Near mile 0.4

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 241 meters.

Basilica of Saint Mary

Near mile 1.3

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 61 meters.

Walker Art Center

Near mile 1.7

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 21 meters.

Cathedral of Saint Paul

Near mile 25.8

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 93 meters.

A weekend rhythm that protects race day

  1. Arrival. Base your first walk on the real start and finish geometry, then inspect the final approach in the route map.
  2. Packet pickup. Go to Twin Cities Health & Fitness Expo, Saint Paul RiverCentre (lower level) inside its published window; save the final hours offline.
  3. The day before. Choose one course landmark, keep the outing short, and finish your feet-up time early.
  4. Race day. Follow the transportation plan, not ordinary weekend traffic directions.
  5. After the finish. Let the finish-area access plan decide the meal and meetup, especially on a point-to-point course.

Where the weekend should be based

The mistake here is assuming a point-to-point course means you must choose between the start and the finish. You don't. Twin Cities In Motion runs free participant buses in both directions on race morning and afternoon: St. Paul to the Minneapolis start line before the race, and the finish area back to both downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul afterward. That said, the race's own group-rate block is in downtown Minneapolis, both properties at The Depot (Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel and Residence Inn Minneapolis Downtown), quoted at $209 to $229 a night with a two-night minimum and a September 4, 2026 booking deadline. Downtown Minneapolis is the default answer for most runners: you walk to the start, and the shuttle brings you home. The real decision is whether you'd rather walk two blocks at 6:45 a.m. or walk two blocks at 2 p.m. with 26.2 miles in your legs.

Compare the actual hotel geometry →

Course geometry provenance is stated beside the player; elevation profiles always use the same route loaded there. City geometry is OpenStreetMap, ODbL. Aerial imagery is from USGS and USDA; other images carry their own source credits. Weather figures use Open-Meteo reanalysis for September 30-October 8 across 2016-2025 at the start line. Schedule, prices and expo hours were checked in 2026-08-26 and are the fields most likely to move: confirm them on www.tcmevents.org/alleventsandraces/medtronictwincitiesmarathonweekend/medtronictwincitiesmarathon before you book anything. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it fast.