The Mobile Marathon and Half Marathon (known before 2019 as the First Light Marathon) takes runners on a tour of America’s original Mardi Gras city — a fact worth stating clearly, because Mobile hosted the first Mardi Gras in the U.S. in 1703, fifteen years before New Orleans got started. The race benefits the First Light Community Foundation, an adult special-needs organization that has been the beneficiary since the race’s founding.

Both the marathon and half marathon start and finish at Mardi Gras Park in downtown Mobile, on Church Street next to Royal. The 7:30 AM start gets runners moving before Mobile’s coastal humidity has fully woken up. Half marathoners follow a mostly-flat loop that runs through the Old Dauphin Way Historic District — Mobile’s oldest residential neighborhood, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 — past antebellum architecture, tree-lined streets, and stretches through neighborhoods that reviewers consistently describe as some of the more visually rewarding urban miles in the South. The marathon shares the first eight to nine miles with the half before splitting off into a hillier middle section that takes runners past the University of South Alabama and surrounding neighborhoods before returning to the finish.

Both courses are USATF certified. The marathon is Boston Qualifier eligible. The half marathon course is flat enough to be genuinely PR-friendly.

The signature of the Mobile Marathon isn’t the course — it’s the medals. Each finisher’s medal is hand-painted by adults at First Light Community Foundation, and no two are alike. Runners consistently rate the medals as among the most meaningful they receive at any race. Packet pickup is welcomed by Azalea Trail Maids in traditional Southern dress, and post-race food and hospitality reflect the race’s community-run character.

The event includes the full marathon, half marathon, full marathon relay, half marathon relay, and a 1.2-mile fun run for kids. Fields typically run in the 500-1,000 range across all distances. Registration for the 2027 event (January 10, 2027) opens April 20, 2026.