2nd Annual Valentine Marathon
August 1
Race Information
Valentine marathon
AUGUST 1, 2026
Race, Celebrate, and Support Valentine
Join us for the 2026 Valentine Marathon benefitting the Valentine Community Schools Foundation!
Your Registration Includes:
- Super-fast, super-beautiful course with aid stations every 3 miles
- Finish line festival with Sandhills beef and Bolo beer!
- Free professional race photos uploaded to your account
- Unique and awesome swag, including the belt buckle finisher medal
- Professional timing and live runner tracking by Precision Timing
- Professional pacing by the Garmin Pace Team
- A chance to support local kids and a great charity
- Drink tickets, local discounts, and more all weekend long
- A reason—as if you need one—to visit beautiful Valentine!
This race is a USA Track & Field and Boston Marathon Qualifying (USATF) (BQ) event.
Whether you’re looking for a fast course in a stunningly beautiful place for a BQ, log your first competitive 5K of the fall, or be active and give back to the community while doing it, this is your next favorite race!
New!! This year the winner of the Ultra Marathon will win a 22L-Explorer Adventurer Touring Backpack from Viking Bags.
https://www.vikingbags.com/collections/motorcycle-backpacks
A Note from the Race Director
Valentine is my hometown. As a four-year cross-country runner, I can tell you what a beautiful place it is to run, and as a marathoner, I’ve gone out of my way to make sure that our race includes all of the things that make a race great. Come to Valentine for the race, enjoy our scenery, local stores, our beef, and our beer. Then stay to tube down the Niobrara, check out Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, get in eighteen holes, see Smith Falls and more. There’s so much to do in the Sandhills once you’ve run your race. I hope you’ll spend the weekend. ~ Mark Gudgel