Paducah Iron Mom Half Marathon & 5k

May 10, 2025
Paducah
Road
Distances
Half-Marathon, 5k
Starting Time

7:00 AM

Fees

$90+

Perfect For

Ready to sign up?

100-500
Fast & Flat
Urban
High: 76°
/ Low: 54°

Set for its 14th annual running this year — a few years after historic floods along the Ohio River pushed back the planned inaugural running in 2011 from Mother’s Day in May to mid-June — the Mercy Health Paducah Iron Mom Half Marathon & Half Marathon Relay brings out several hundred runners each year to the streets of this city that’s nestled along the Tennessee and Ohio rivers.

Runners follow an out-and-back loop route for the half marathon that starts and finish at the city’s landmark “Wall to Wall” murals, a series of huge mural paintings created by painter Robert Dafford that tell the story of the city of Paducah and western Kentucky along the flood walls in Schultz Park, which lies right along the banks of the Ohio River.

From there, runners head from the river in toward the city’s downtown district, starting off with a nearly three-mile straightaway stretch along Jefferson Street. These early miles of the race feature some of Paducah’s historic residential neighborhoods, and the course is quite literally flat as a pancake for the first few miles as well.

The only real hills along the half marathon route occur between mile markers 4 and 6, as runners make their way out of the intown and residential parts of the course and onto the city’s Greenway Trail, which takes them along the edges of two city parks, Stewart Nelson Park and Bob Noble Park.
With sections that are shaded by trees through the woods and other stretches out in the open sun, the Greenway Trail stretch lasts for the next couple of miles before putting runners back out onto the roadways inside Noble Park. Once runners make the turn right onto Cairo Road from Noble Park Street, the route then turns residential again, taking runners through the neighborhoods along Atkins, 26th and 25th Streets.
The home stretch of the race begins when runners make the turn left onto Madison Street, and start the last couple of miles (they’ll pass the mile 11 marker a few blocks after turning onto Madison) that bring them back toward the river and back toward Schultz Park for the race finish back at the Wall to Wall murals.

Overview
Set for its 14th annual running this year — a few years after historic floods along the Ohio River pushed back the planned inaugural running in 2011 from Mother’s Day in May to mid-June — the Mercy Health Paducah Iron Mom Half Marathon & Half Marathon Relay brings out several hundred runners each year to the streets of this city that’s nestled along the Tennessee and Ohio rivers. Runners follow an out-and-back loop route for the half marathon that starts and finish at the city’s landmark “Wall to Wall” murals, a series of huge mural paintings created by painter Robert Dafford that tell the story of the city of Paducah and western Kentucky along the flood walls in Schultz Park, which lies right along the banks of the Ohio River. From there, runners head from the river in toward the city’s downtown district, starting off with a nearly three-mile straightaway stretch along Jefferson Street. These early miles of the race feature some of Paducah’s historic residential neighborhoods, and the course is quite literally flat as a pancake for the first few miles as well.

The only real hills along the half marathon route occur between mile markers 4 and 6, as runners make their way out of the intown and residential parts of the course and onto the city’s Greenway Trail, which takes them along the edges of two city parks, Stewart Nelson Park and Bob Noble Park.
With sections that are shaded by trees through the woods and other stretches out in the open sun, the Greenway Trail stretch lasts for the next couple of miles before putting runners back out onto the roadways inside Noble Park. Once runners make the turn right onto Cairo Road from Noble Park Street, the route then turns residential again, taking runners through the neighborhoods along Atkins, 26th and 25th Streets.
The home stretch of the race begins when runners make the turn left onto Madison Street, and start the last couple of miles (they’ll pass the mile 11 marker a few blocks after turning onto Madison) that bring them back toward the river and back toward Schultz Park for the race finish back at the Wall to Wall murals.

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Paducah Iron Mom Half Marathon & 5k Course Map

Distances
Half Marathon, 5k
Starting Time

7:00 AM

Fees

$90+

Perfect For

Ready to sign up?

Train with Runna

Use code HALF for 2 weeks FREE

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