Overview The Tobacco Road Marathon is a road marathon and half in Cary, North Carolina, that runs more than 20 miles of the full on the American Tobacco Trail, a rail-trail built on a 1906 tobacco railroad, and the race says it produces the most Boston qualifiers and the highest share of any marathon in North Carolina. The Veradigm Tobacco Road Marathon and VHB Half Marathon start together on a Sunday morning in March. A 501(c)(3) with an all-volunteer board runs it for its charity partners. On site Both races start and finish at USA Baseball and Thomas Brooks Park, share about 2.5 miles of Morrisville Parkway, then split at the trail: the full turns north on crushed granite to a turnaround near Scott King Road, the half turns south and comes back just after a tunnel under US 64. Both courses are USATF certified and end on a downhill finish. Just past the line hangs a bell that runners ring for a personal record or a Boston time, and the awards table hands out a Boston-qualifier shirt. The post-race party has live music and a beer garden a short walk from the finish, with two free beers for every runner of legal age. Audience The field runs for time goals. Free pace groups cover 3:35 to 6:00 in the full, military and masters runners have their own award categories, and the half has a ruck division carrying 10- to 30-pound packs. Triangle runners cannot pick up bibs on race morning, so they come through the free two-day expo first, and many out-of-town runners arrive Friday and make a weekend of it. Talent and Influencers The course records are Donnie Cowart's 2:17:37 in 2021 and Cassidy Heaton's 2:42:17 in 2024 in the full, and Pardon Ndhlovu's 1:06:58 in 2023 and Andrea Kuhn's 1:14:18 in 2026 in the half. John Crews won the men's full in 2022, 2023 and 2025. Elite entries are accepted case by case against published time standards. Track record The first race ran on March 21, 2010. It has run every March since, except 2020, when it went virtual, and 2021, when it moved to May; the 2027 race is the 17th. The race says it has raised more than $2 million for charities including Breakthrough T1D, the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, Hope For The Warriors and the Triangle Rails to Trails Conservancy. About 700 volunteers work race day. Brand presence Each distance carries a title name, and the 2025 packet also sold naming of the two-day expo, sponsor names on every mile marker and on water stops, and positions on the race shirt and the 30-foot steel start-finish truss. The race writes a custom agreement for each partner, and some have been with it since 2010. Sunkist oranges, Sysco chocolate milk and Papa John's pizza fed the 2026 post-race party, and Bond Brothers, a Cary brewery, ran the beer garden from its truck.