History

The Knoxville Marathon is the premier event of the Knoxville Track Club (KTC), a 501c(3) nonprofit located in Knoxville, TN. The event is produced by the KTC, with the help of the City of Knoxville, the University of Tennessee, and the title sponsor, Covenant Health.

The Knoxville Track Club is among the top ten largest track and field clubs in the U.S. The KTC encourages life-long physical well-being through running and walking. We offer year-round programs that include running and walking events for people of all ages.

Playing an active role in the community, we raise monies at our own road races as well as assisting others for a variety of worthy causes, including, but not limited to Boys and Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley, YWCA, Emerald Youth Foundation, Girls on the Run of Greater Knoxville, the American Cancer Society, Knox County Schools, and local youth organizations.

We support high school track & field programs, direct the 50 year old Volunteer Track Classic for high schools, sponsor middle school awards for both spring and fall, participate in the Adopt-a-Highway and Adopt-a-Creek programs, are actively involved in the Knoxville Greenways Program, and have given financial support to the University of Tennessee Women’s and Men’s Track teams. Our KTC Officials Association assists in and trains officials for area track and field meets. Without question KTC Officials Association is the largest and most talented group of judges, timers, and race officials in the southeast  their ranks include members who have participated in USATF National Meets, Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games.

The inaugural event was held March 20, 2005.

The CHKM became the first road race to finish on the 50 yard line of Neyland Stadium, home of the University of Tennessee Volunteers. The event finished at the stadium from 2005-2018, but changed to a World’s Fair Park Finish line in 2019 due to stadium renovations. The 2020 event was postponed to the fall and ultimately became a virtual event. Our first post-pandemic event was held in October 2021, and then we transitioned back to our traditional spring date in March 2022. The April 1-2, 2023 event was the largest post-pandemic CHKM yet. We are looking forward to celebrating our 20th Annual event on April 6-7, 2024!