Set your alarms and lace up early. Public registration for the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon weekend opens at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and organizers are bracing for a stampede. Twin Cities In Motion is planning to expand the Oct. 4 marathon field to roughly 11,000 runners and wheelers, bringing the race back toward crowd levels not seen in years. Registration opens for every Marathon Weekend distance at once, from family events to the half-marathon and the ever-competitive 10-mile race.
Race leaders expect about 11,000 runners and wheelers for the Oct. 4 marathon, roughly 1,500 more than last year, a bump that could nudge Twin Cities back into the top 10 U.S. marathons. The event’s high-water mark was 12,026 entrants in 2013, and it last topped 11,000 participants in 2016, according to the Star Tribune.
Registration Tweaks and the Charity Back Door
Twin Cities In Motion has stepped away from lotteries for some of its most sought-after distances, so the public race to register is now strictly first-come, first-served. Charities and corporate teams already had their chance to lock in guaranteed spots, and organizers say joining a charity team is still one of the most reliable ways to secure a bib while supporting more than 70 local causes.
Public registration will run through the event platform linked from TCM’s website beginning at 10 a.m. CT on Tuesday, as outlined by Twin Cities In Motion. In other words, if you plan to click your way to the starting line, do not be fashionably late.
Gen Z Joins the Pack, and Fields Get Bigger
One reason organizers are confident about those larger fields is a noticeable youth surge. Gen Z made up nearly one-fifth of the fields across five Twin Cities In Motion events in 2025, helping drive entries higher. That local wave tracks with Strava’s 2025 Year in Sport report, which found younger athletes are increasingly prioritizing racing, community, and real-world movement over passive scrolling. Put simply, a lot of twenty-somethings would rather chase PRs than push notifications.
Spring Races, Summer Warmups, and Fall Walkers
For those who like to treat the marathon as the final exam, Twin Cities In Motion has a full slate of prep races. The calendar features the Hot Dash on March 21, the Get in Gear half-marathon on April 25, and a new Double Play 5K that finishes at CHS Field on July 1. Organizers also plan to add walking-only registration and dedicated corrals beginning with the Marathon Weekend 5K on Oct. 3 to better accommodate walkers who prefer to keep things low impact and less frantic.
Event pages and registration details for all distances are available on the Twin Cities In Motion website. Given how quickly the marquee spots tend to disappear, runners and walkers eyeing a fall start line should be ready when the clock hits 10 a.m. CT. Whether you are chasing a personal best or a fundraising goal, this registration window is poised to set the tone for the entire Twin Cities road-race season.
