Overview The Louisiana Marathon is Baton Rouge's January race weekend, and its finish runs toward the State Capitol and into a festival serving jambalaya and three gumbos: chicken and sausage, shrimp and okra, and vegan. Saturday carries a quarter marathon, a 5K, a kids' marathon for ages 2 to 12 and a Diaper Dash for the youngest; Sunday is the full and half marathon. The full is a USATF-certified Boston qualifier on a flat course, and the race says it has one of the highest qualifying rates of any marathon. FRESHJUNKIE Racing puts it on. On site The full marathon runs past the lakes, along the Mississippi River, around downtown, across the LSU campus and through Baton Rouge's older neighborhoods; the half shares the opening miles and turns back downtown. Marathoners have to hold a 13:45-per-mile pace, with three cutoff points on the course. The two-day expo is in the Raising Cane's River Center ballroom. Visit Baton Rouge Finish Fest runs both days near State Capitol Park with local bands, and it is open to the public: runners' food tickets come on their bibs and spectators buy their own. A Kids Zone with games sits in AZ Young Park. Audience Running clubs register as teams, and a club with 15 registered runners can claim one of 20 tents on Run Club Row beside the start and finish, with the post-race party a block away. The Deja Vu Challenge awards its own medal to runners who race both days, a Saturday 5K or quarter plus a Sunday half or full, and the Beach 2 Bayou Challenge pairs the weekend with the Mississippi Gulf Coast Marathon for a third medal. Sunday runners can upgrade to a VIP tier with a pre-race tent, coffee, catered food, beer, wine and cocktails and prime viewing at the start and finish. Track record Craig Sweeney, Danny Bourgeois and Patrick Fellows founded the race, and it first ran in January 2012, when Matthew Manning won the inaugural marathon. The course records belong to Josh Ordway at 2:23:47 and Rachel Booth at 2:43:57. Brand presence Partners put their names on the races themselves: the quarter marathon and 5K carry one brand, the kids' marathon another, the Diaper Dash a third, and the Finish Fest and the Kids Zone are both named. Packages are sold for the expo, Run Club Row, the gumbo and jambalaya tent, the Boston qualifier program and the Deja Vu Challenge medal.