Overview The Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon is East Tennessee's spring race weekend - marathon, half marathon, four-person marathon relay, 5K and a kids run - and it was the first road race to finish on the 50-yard line of Neyland Stadium, home of the Tennessee Volunteers, finishing there every year from its first edition in 2005 through 2018. Stadium renovations moved the finish to World's Fair Park in 2019. The Knoxville Track Club, a nonprofit, owns and produces it with the City of Knoxville and the University of Tennessee, and the club calls it the largest competitive road race in East Tennessee. On site The marathon starts downtown at the Clinch Avenue bridge near the Knoxville Convention Center, in the shadow of the Sunsphere, and the route runs through the University of Tennessee campus and Knoxville's older neighborhoods before coming back to World's Fair Park. Race weekend opens with the Health and Fitness Expo, and the Kids Run has its own kickoff event. On race days sponsors pitch 20-by-20 tents on the lawn at World's Fair Park for their staff before and after the races. Runners can stack races into the Knox Hills and Marble City Challenges, and in 2026 race photos were free to every participant. Audience It is a home crowd that also travels: more than 67% of participants come from East Tennessee, and in 2025 the field came from 45 states and four other countries, from elite runners to first-timers. Knoxville employers race each other across all the events in the Fittest Company Challenge. Track record More than 6,500 people took part in 2025. In 2020 the race went virtual, came back in person in October 2021 and returned to its spring date in March 2022. WATE-TV, Knoxville's ABC station, aired a four-hour live broadcast of the race in 2023, 2024 and 2025, shot with MediaMotos, the motorcycle camera crew that covers the Boston and New York City marathons and the Tour de France. Proceeds fund the Knoxville Track Club, a share goes to the Patricia Neal Innovative Recreation Cooperative, and the club's Community Contribution Program makes grants to other local nonprofits. Brand presence In 2026 Covenant Health held the title across all five races. Below it, the top level puts a sponsor's logo on every free participant photo beside the Covenant Health and Knoxville Track Club marks, and the next level presents the Fittest Company Challenge. Sponsors also appear on the bibs and race shirts, on banners at the start and finish, in the race program and virtual goody bag, and at booths in the expo. The club asks partners to send a team of volunteers, and takes in-kind sponsorships.