The Charlotte Marathon is now under new management. Where does it go from here?
After two decades under the guidance of veteran race director Tim Rhodes, the Novant Health Charlotte Marathon is striding forth into a new era: The Charlotte Sports Foundation announced Tuesday that it has acquired the city’s signature distance race from Rhodes and his RunCharlotte company.
The move shifts ownership to a nonprofit organization that already produces some of the city’s largest annual sporting events and potentially sets the marathon up for an ambitious period of growth.
The announcement was made during a news conference at Foundation for the Carolinas in uptown Charlotte.
“As a 501(c)(3), our mission is simple: It’s to drive economic impact and enhance the quality of life of those who live in the region through high-profile sports events,” Will Pitts, CEO of Charlotte Sports — which has an existing portfolio that includes the Duke’s Mayo Bowl and the ACC Football Championship — told The Charlotte Observer in an interview last week.
“We think this perfectly fits that mission,” Pitts said.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Miller Yoho, the foundation’s director of communications and marketing, said “this isn’t a one-year investment. This is an investment for 20 years, 30 years.”
Pitts pointed out that the Charlotte Marathon — encompassing the city’s only 26.2-mile road race, as well as a 13.1-mile half marathon and a 5K — will hold firm to its previously established place on the calendar this year, Saturday, Nov. 14.
He said future changes to the event will be on the table, but that it’s too early to say what those might be.
“This has been a staple in the running community for 20 years,” said Pitts, whose own foundation began showing serious interest in running races two years ago when it created the Meck Mile. “What Tim and the RunCharlotte team have built is great for our community, and we’re excited to just elevate that.
“We want this to continue to grow and to be one of the premier marathons in the country, and we think — given Charlotte’s growth and given that this is, in our opinion, one of the best cities in the country — that we certainly could.”
Could the race get to 20,000 runners?
For many years after Rhodes introduced the marathon to the city in 2005 (originally as the Thunder Road Marathon, till the name change in 2016), participation had a few peaks and valleys but was largely flat. In November 2019, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event drew less than 6,000 participants for all three races.
But a nationwide post-COVID running boom gave way to steady, significant growth through this past fall, when Rhodes and his team hosted a record-high field of more than 11,000 runners.
And while Pitts was guarded about participation goals for the future — saying only “while we think we can grow the number of runners, we want to grow the event the right way” — Rhodes ventured a guess.
“If you kind of math it out over the next four or five years, it lands somewhere between 17 and 20 (thousand),” the outgoing race director said in a separate interview last week. So then why did he decide to bow out?
In short, the 64-year-old race director and former running-store-chain owner told the Observer over and over, “It’s just time.”
Rhodes said he started thinking about selling the rights to the marathon a couple of years ago. He said he initiated a conversation with Charlotte Sports after their successful launch of the Meck Mile in 2024, intrigued by the idea of a nonprofit taking over.
The foundation was interested. Its team, Rhodes concluded, would take good care of it — better care at this point than he could, he explained, with the help of this analogy: “The guy that gets the company to a million dollars isn’t the same guy that gets him to five, and he’s not the same guy that gets him to 10. So apply that to (this). ... I’ve been fortunate enough to lead a group of people that has been able to grow it to this point. I think it’s going to take a larger bandwidth and group of people to take it to the next level.”
Even so, Rhodes will get a long kiss goodbye, having agreed to stay on as a quasi-consultant for the 2026 race.
Here he offers another analogy: “I mean, this is kind of sending a kid off to college. You don’t just walk away. ... I want to see this event grow and succeed, and see what it can really become. ... I’ve already told myself, I’m not going to like everything they do. I’m just not. And that’s okay. But there’s a lot of things that I think they’re going to do that I’m going to say, ‘Wow, I wish we would have thought of that, or could have done that.’”
‘I think I’ve done my job’
Again, for what it’s worth, Charlotte Sports says no big changes are imminent. There are no immediate plans, for instance, to re-imagine the course, said Miller Yoho, the foundation’s director of communications and marketing — even if that’s largely because the special-event permits were submitted and approved before the acquisition.
Over the years, however, runners have often complained in particular about the marathon course (which, after a first half that’s reliably scenic has always gotten less-attractive in the second).
So, Charlotte Sports isn’t ruling out overhauling it in the future. Said Yoho: “I think the best marathon will be one that reflects Charlotte, the people who live here, and touches the neighborhoods in a unique way — which a lot of cities’ (marathons) don’t.”
The key, he continued, “is engaging all 26 miles in a way that runners and spectators feel that it is special for them. We don’t want there to be a moment or a space where your mind drifts. Instead, we want people to be engaged, excited and to experience something that’s unique to Charlotte.”
Rhodes readily admitted to wanting that, too. But having spent a full third of his life trying to fulfill that desire himself, he’s happy to finally have someone else in charge of that task.
“I think I’ve done my job,” he said. “To be fair to the event and the running community, it’s time for somebody else to take the baton and run with it.”
Oh, and a quick footnote — in case there are runners who might be wondering ...
The other races that have been in RunCharlotte’s portfolio (the Shamrock 4 Miler, the Four On The Fourth, the Yiasou Greek Festival 5K, the Hit the Brixx 10K & 6K, and the Lake Norman 15K & 5K) also will all take place in 2026 as scheduled; however, they will not be owned and operated by Charlotte Sports. Yoho said an announcement regarding those events is due later this week.
Meanwhile, Yoho said Charlotte Sports will not be bringing back its Meck Mile, so that it can focus on the marathon — as well as its other events, including the Mayo Bowl, the ACC Championship, college basketball’s Dick Vitale Invitational, college football’s Duke’s Mayo Classic, and tennis’ Charlotte Invitational.
This story was originally published January 20, 2026 at 10:00 AM.
