Overview The Coast Guard Marathon is the official race of the United States Coast Guard, run each April in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on a flat Boston-qualifying course that takes runners down the runway at Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City when missions and security allow. Race weekend carries a full marathon, a half, a 5K and a 1K for children 12 and under, and runners who stack distances earn Semper Paratus Challenge coins. It began in 2021 and is the Coast Guard's leg of the Armed Forces Series, alongside the Marine Corps Marathon, the Army Ten-Miler, the Air Force Marathon and the Space Force T-Minus 10-Miler. Coast Guard Community Services runs it. On site Races start downtown by the Museum of the Albemarle and Waterfront Park. The marathon follows the Pasquotank River waterfront past riverfront homes, reaches its midpoint near one of the last remaining World War II airship hangars, and passes Elizabeth City State University, a historically Black university, before finishing downtown; the half passes Coast Guard Park and the Sailing Center. The 5K and 1K run Saturday and the half and full on Sunday. Around them sit a two-day expo at the museum, a pasta luncheon, a Toast to the Coast Guard dinner, a family festival and the finish celebration at Waterfront Park. Because the course enters the base, in-person registration closes in mid-March for background checks. Audience More than 85 percent of 2025 runners had military ties: family members were the largest group, then active duty, then veterans. North Carolina and Virginia sent the most runners. Reviews in the race's deck came from a Maryland family that drives down every year for the 1K, a parent whose daughter is a Coastie, and a German runner working through the Armed Forces Series. Track record Two in three 2024 sponsors came back in 2025, and the race counted more than 6,000 people through the expo booths. Its website users more than doubled after an August 2024 redesign, with traffic peaking in August, around the Coast Guard's birthday, and in marathon month. The race calls its course the fastest in North Carolina. Brand presence A partner can present one piece of the weekend: the Toast to the Coast Guard dinner, the pasta luncheon, the 1K fun run or the traveling memorials. Course inventory runs to mile markers, on-course trivia and the No Man's Land stretch, and branded areas include a military appreciation tent, the recovery zone and photo spots. Higher levels hang a banner on the base itself from April into August, put a company speaker on the program and hold the finish tape. In 2026 HOIST supplied the electrolyte drink on course.