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Marathon Details - Horse Capital Marathon

North America Marathons > USA > KY > Lexington > Horse Capital Marathon

Horse Capital Marathon

Horse Capital Marathon & Half Marathon

Lexington, KY USA

April 12, 2025

http://www.kyhorsepark.com/event/horse-capital-marathon

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Marathon Results

By Year:

2024 2023 2022 2021 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 Top 3 Finishers

Race Details

Rolling country course with 1,500 elevation change, runs past over 40 Central Kentucky horse farms.

Contact Information

Name:	Bob Baney
Address:	3501 Antilles Drive Lexington, KY 40509
Phone Number:	859-475-3232
Fax Number:	N/A
Email:	Email the organizers

Runner Reviews (10)

Course 4.2

Organization 4.3

Spectators 2.6

Write a review

Number of comments: 10

Steve Lauzon from Charleston, SC (5/22/2018) "Really Nice Small Marathon" (about: 2018) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Really nice race this year. I prepared for a hilly race and that is what it was. I personally did not struggle with the hills since none were long or steep but they were consistent other than a stretch at the beginning and end which were pretty flat. The course was not very accessible to spectators but there was a good spot for the start and finish. We got free massages after the race and a great food truck. This was the best medal I have ever received in a marathon. My only criticism was that the drinking cups on the course were obnoxiously small, making water stations a little slower than usual for me.
N. R. from Minnesota (5/23/2017) "Would run again and again if I could!" (about: 2017) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 WOW! What an absolutely perfect marathon for those of us who run for the experience vs. for a specific time! Gorgeous horse paddocks and horses surround you the entire time - the views along the rolling course are absolutely stunning!! I actually was excited to run the course twice (it is a quasi-double loop course), as I couldn't wait to get a second look at the beautiful course again! Plentiful aid stations with great volunteers. Yes, it is hilly, but honestly, the hills are not as bad as cracked up to be - I was able to run up every hill w/ no problem during the first loop. (I did walk up a few hills at the end). Also, the home stretch toward the finish is flat. This race is exceptionally well-organized with a lot of attention to detail! The expo was small but had some fun photo ops. The race shirts were perfect, and OH THOSE MEDALS....outstanding and Huge! Even though 2017 was an exceptionally hot and humid year, it truly did not dampen my experience at all! It is going down as one of my favorites! If you are a 50-stater, RUN THIS RACE for your Kentucky marathon! :)
p. h. from AZ (5/23/2017) "Well organized race." (about: 2017) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 1 All the mechanics of the race were well done. Beautiful horse farm country. Plenty of rolling hills to go along with the heat and humidity. Good intervals of aid stations and porta-johns.
J. H. from Tennessee (5/31/2016) "Nice marathon, well run, would run it again." (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons \| 2 Horse Capital Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I ran the inaugural race last year and ran the 2nd one this year. Some of my comments remain the same from last year. Both years were well organized, with helpful volunteers. Great parking near the start & finish are always a welcome site. Last year, the BIG issue was the 30 minute delayed start, due to traffic jams from people not arriving on time, as specifically told to do (since the only entrance into the event was also the 1st few hundred yards of the race). I wrote last year that 'this cannot happen again, for people needing to check out of hotels and/or making flights out of town'. Thankfully, this was NOT A PROBLEM AGAIN THIS YEAR, so I give the race organizers a BIG positive for that! The course is hilly but not too bad, even for a flatlander like me. Volunteers were plentiful enough and did a good job of meeting our needs. My only complaint this year is the post race food! I was only offered water, chocolate milk, bananas or PB&J. What happened to last year's Chick-fil-A or what other races offer, like pizza, doughnuts, etc? For someone who doesn't like PB&J, I was forced to stop and get lunch, before starting my 6+ hour drive home. Not exactly what I'd hoped for. Regardless, I would recommend this race!
Frank Feng from Maryland, USA (5/27/2016) "A little overprice for a grass-root & low-key race" (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 I ran this marathon on May 21, 2016. It was my first marathon in two years after a terrible heel injury and was my fifteenth state. The race was super tiny, which is good for me and I enjoyed it very much. The starting and finish area are probably the best feature of all - free parking next to the lines. Course was hilly as I expected and having a Boston Marathon incentive is very good thing to have. I think the volunteers were great, but probably need some training on how to handing water cup; when a runner reach out for cup, please don't bring your hands back, I wasn't going to hit you, I just want to grab the cup off your hand. Post-race food wasn't a lot, the ice cold chocolate milk and beer were excellent, but miss out on fruits, few banana and orange will be nice to have. Overall, I think it can improve a lot, but paying a hundred bucks for a low-key marathon is little too much, if I weren't try to get KY off my list. Keep up the good work!
A. M. from Clarksville, TN (6/4/2015) "Great Inaugural Event" (about: 2015) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 For an inaugural event, I thought this was a great race! As this race is pretty local for me (about 3 1/2 hour drive), I'm definitely inclined to run it again. With that being said, there were some hiccups. For one, to get to the start (Fasig Park I believe it was called), they need to look at their parking/traffic situation. Getting to the start was a nightmare. I think maybe if allow for one way traffic ONLY into the parking lot would've made things a lot smoother. There was an accident on the highway leading up to the race and I think this led to the RD allowing a half hour delay. I think this helped benefit a lot of people who were stuck in traffic trying to get to the start. Kudos to the RD on this. There were a lot of perks to this race. I loved the fact that we could prepay for a photo package (reasonably priced at $8.99 I believe). I thought that was a good deal. The race swag can't be beat, great high quality medal that doubles as a beer opener. My personal opinion, I would've liked maybe something more of a 'horse theme' as a medal, like a horse shoe type medal, but I still didn't have the a problem with the medal that was awarded though. :) The course definitely is tough but it's advertised as such. They had a 'course preview video' available through YouTube which would allow people to look at the course which was nice. I didn't see a course elevation chart which would've been nice. I thought the course was really pretty, though I'm not fond of double looped courses. Post race food was excellent. With your entry, you got one free beer. They also had Chick Fil-A there with free sandwiches, which was great. Overall, I think there is some room to improve but I'd love to return next year. Hopefully to pace again :)
D. M. from Louisville, Kentucky (5/21/2015) "Hideous!" (about: 2015) 2 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 1 This course is way to hilly. Also, it loops and looping during a 26 mile run is horrible. The rain didn't help this experience. Did I mention the hills! It's all hills.
J. H. from Tennessee (5/18/2015) "Great Inaugural Event - Only 1 item to Improve on" (about: 2015) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 This is the 3rd inaugural marathon I have run in my career and it was great. If they correct one item for next year, I'll give everything 5 stars. Pros: 1) Very organized & well planned 2) Convenient parking for Start & Finish 3) Post race activities were great. 4) Course support stations were well manned and all were very encouraging. 5) Course was scenic (and for a flatlander like me, not TOO difficult, but the rolling hills seemed a LOT more difficult during the 2nd lap of the course). 6) Great 'late checkout' by the hotels in the area, made my 6 hour drive home much more pleasant. Con: I realize it was listed as a 'police dictated issue' but delaying the start by 30 minutes MUST not happen next year. For people like me who had hotel rooms to check out of, it made for a much more stressful day and I'm betting some people had flights to catch that were impacted, even more than I was. Either find some other way to start the race, so it doesn't go 'out the race site entrance' or work out ahead of time with the police, to hold the remaining traffic until after the start of the race. We all were told to arrive between 5:45-6:15 due to these issues, so those who chose not to comply, should not be allowed to impact the 95% of us who followed instructions.
M. S. from Lino Lakes, MN (5/18/2015) "Great Inaugural!!" (about: 2015) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 2 1st marathon in this part of Kentucky in 35 years and well worth the wait. The course is challenging (definitely train for hills!)...rolling hills nearly the whole way past some of the most amazing green-pastured horse estates probably anywhere in the world. The course setting felt intimate and private with almost no traffic but also not many spectators. Big thumbs up to the organizers, volunteers and police who worked through 1st time race challenges (parking, weather, traffic hurdles unrelated to the event) as if they've been doing this a long time. Beautiful host venue for the expo which is where the race starts and finishes...no bus rides needed!!! Excellent medal, excellent t-shirt and complimentary chick fil-a sandwiches and Kentucky Ale at the end. Only downside for me was the high humidity which was kept in check by the clouds and an occasional downpour which felt quite good actually.



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Steve Lauzon from Charleston, SC (5/22/2018) "Really Nice Small Marathon" (about: 2018) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Really nice race this year. I prepared for a hilly race and that is what it was. I personally did not struggle with the hills since none were long or steep but they were consistent other than a stretch at the beginning and end which were pretty flat. The course was not very accessible to spectators but there was a good spot for the start and finish. We got free massages after the race and a great food truck. This was the best medal I have ever received in a marathon. My only criticism was that the drinking cups on the course were obnoxiously small, making water stations a little slower than usual for me.
N. R. from Minnesota (5/23/2017) "Would run again and again if I could!" (about: 2017) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 WOW! What an absolutely perfect marathon for those of us who run for the experience vs. for a specific time! Gorgeous horse paddocks and horses surround you the entire time - the views along the rolling course are absolutely stunning!! I actually was excited to run the course twice (it is a quasi-double loop course), as I couldn't wait to get a second look at the beautiful course again! Plentiful aid stations with great volunteers. Yes, it is hilly, but honestly, the hills are not as bad as cracked up to be - I was able to run up every hill w/ no problem during the first loop. (I did walk up a few hills at the end). Also, the home stretch toward the finish is flat. This race is exceptionally well-organized with a lot of attention to detail! The expo was small but had some fun photo ops. The race shirts were perfect, and OH THOSE MEDALS....outstanding and Huge! Even though 2017 was an exceptionally hot and humid year, it truly did not dampen my experience at all! It is going down as one of my favorites! If you are a 50-stater, RUN THIS RACE for your Kentucky marathon! :)
p. h. from AZ (5/23/2017) "Well organized race." (about: 2017) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 1 All the mechanics of the race were well done. Beautiful horse farm country. Plenty of rolling hills to go along with the heat and humidity. Good intervals of aid stations and porta-johns.
J. H. from Tennessee (5/31/2016) "Nice marathon, well run, would run it again." (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons \| 2 Horse Capital Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I ran the inaugural race last year and ran the 2nd one this year. Some of my comments remain the same from last year. Both years were well organized, with helpful volunteers. Great parking near the start & finish are always a welcome site. Last year, the BIG issue was the 30 minute delayed start, due to traffic jams from people not arriving on time, as specifically told to do (since the only entrance into the event was also the 1st few hundred yards of the race). I wrote last year that 'this cannot happen again, for people needing to check out of hotels and/or making flights out of town'. Thankfully, this was NOT A PROBLEM AGAIN THIS YEAR, so I give the race organizers a BIG positive for that! The course is hilly but not too bad, even for a flatlander like me. Volunteers were plentiful enough and did a good job of meeting our needs. My only complaint this year is the post race food! I was only offered water, chocolate milk, bananas or PB&J. What happened to last year's Chick-fil-A or what other races offer, like pizza, doughnuts, etc? For someone who doesn't like PB&J, I was forced to stop and get lunch, before starting my 6+ hour drive home. Not exactly what I'd hoped for. Regardless, I would recommend this race!
Frank Feng from Maryland, USA (5/27/2016) "A little overprice for a grass-root & low-key race" (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 I ran this marathon on May 21, 2016. It was my first marathon in two years after a terrible heel injury and was my fifteenth state. The race was super tiny, which is good for me and I enjoyed it very much. The starting and finish area are probably the best feature of all - free parking next to the lines. Course was hilly as I expected and having a Boston Marathon incentive is very good thing to have. I think the volunteers were great, but probably need some training on how to handing water cup; when a runner reach out for cup, please don't bring your hands back, I wasn't going to hit you, I just want to grab the cup off your hand. Post-race food wasn't a lot, the ice cold chocolate milk and beer were excellent, but miss out on fruits, few banana and orange will be nice to have. Overall, I think it can improve a lot, but paying a hundred bucks for a low-key marathon is little too much, if I weren't try to get KY off my list. Keep up the good work!
A. M. from Clarksville, TN (6/4/2015) "Great Inaugural Event" (about: 2015) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 For an inaugural event, I thought this was a great race! As this race is pretty local for me (about 3 1/2 hour drive), I'm definitely inclined to run it again. With that being said, there were some hiccups. For one, to get to the start (Fasig Park I believe it was called), they need to look at their parking/traffic situation. Getting to the start was a nightmare. I think maybe if allow for one way traffic ONLY into the parking lot would've made things a lot smoother. There was an accident on the highway leading up to the race and I think this led to the RD allowing a half hour delay. I think this helped benefit a lot of people who were stuck in traffic trying to get to the start. Kudos to the RD on this. There were a lot of perks to this race. I loved the fact that we could prepay for a photo package (reasonably priced at $8.99 I believe). I thought that was a good deal. The race swag can't be beat, great high quality medal that doubles as a beer opener. My personal opinion, I would've liked maybe something more of a 'horse theme' as a medal, like a horse shoe type medal, but I still didn't have the a problem with the medal that was awarded though. :) The course definitely is tough but it's advertised as such. They had a 'course preview video' available through YouTube which would allow people to look at the course which was nice. I didn't see a course elevation chart which would've been nice. I thought the course was really pretty, though I'm not fond of double looped courses. Post race food was excellent. With your entry, you got one free beer. They also had Chick Fil-A there with free sandwiches, which was great. Overall, I think there is some room to improve but I'd love to return next year. Hopefully to pace again :)
D. M. from Louisville, Kentucky (5/21/2015) "Hideous!" (about: 2015) 2 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 1 This course is way to hilly. Also, it loops and looping during a 26 mile run is horrible. The rain didn't help this experience. Did I mention the hills! It's all hills.
J. H. from Tennessee (5/18/2015) "Great Inaugural Event - Only 1 item to Improve on" (about: 2015) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 This is the 3rd inaugural marathon I have run in my career and it was great. If they correct one item for next year, I'll give everything 5 stars. Pros: 1) Very organized & well planned 2) Convenient parking for Start & Finish 3) Post race activities were great. 4) Course support stations were well manned and all were very encouraging. 5) Course was scenic (and for a flatlander like me, not TOO difficult, but the rolling hills seemed a LOT more difficult during the 2nd lap of the course). 6) Great 'late checkout' by the hotels in the area, made my 6 hour drive home much more pleasant. Con: I realize it was listed as a 'police dictated issue' but delaying the start by 30 minutes MUST not happen next year. For people like me who had hotel rooms to check out of, it made for a much more stressful day and I'm betting some people had flights to catch that were impacted, even more than I was. Either find some other way to start the race, so it doesn't go 'out the race site entrance' or work out ahead of time with the police, to hold the remaining traffic until after the start of the race. We all were told to arrive between 5:45-6:15 due to these issues, so those who chose not to comply, should not be allowed to impact the 95% of us who followed instructions.
M. S. from Lino Lakes, MN (5/18/2015) "Great Inaugural!!" (about: 2015) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Horse Capital Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 2 1st marathon in this part of Kentucky in 35 years and well worth the wait. The course is challenging (definitely train for hills!)...rolling hills nearly the whole way past some of the most amazing green-pastured horse estates probably anywhere in the world. The course setting felt intimate and private with almost no traffic but also not many spectators. Big thumbs up to the organizers, volunteers and police who worked through 1st time race challenges (parking, weather, traffic hurdles unrelated to the event) as if they've been doing this a long time. Beautiful host venue for the expo which is where the race starts and finishes...no bus rides needed!!! Excellent medal, excellent t-shirt and complimentary chick fil-a sandwiches and Kentucky Ale at the end. Only downside for me was the high humidity which was kept in check by the clouds and an occasional downpour which felt quite good actually.

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Marathon Details - Horse Capital Marathon