November RUN Marathon

The Race

Which race this is, and which it is not

Start with the identity, because it is the part most likely to cause an expensive mistake. There is no live event branded “Blois Marathon”, and the marathon-blois.fr address that still circulates does not resolve to a current organiser site. What exists is November RUN, a first-edition multi-race festival in Blois whose ticketing platform sells a 42.2 km road race alongside a 21.1 km road race, trail events, canicross, handirun, youth races and a gourmet walk. The festival is promoted around a men’s-health theme in the Movember tradition, which is the event’s identity. There is no charity-entry scheme.

Blois is also strongly associated with a completely different race: the Marathon de Cheverny, also known as the Marathon et Trail du Pays des Châteaux. Its individual road marathon starts at the Château de Cheverny, roughly 13 km from Blois, though its event village and some of its trail activity use Blois itself. The two events share a region and nothing else. Cheverny’s route through the vineyards and châteaux, its results, its records and its logistics belong to Cheverny. If you are looking for that race, this is not it.

History

There is none to tell. The organiser labels November RUN a first edition, and no previous running, course record, past winner or participation figure exists. Third-party race calendars have picked the event up and describe the same programme, but they all trace back to the organiser’s own ticketing platform.

That absence comes with a new race. What it does mean in practical terms is that there is no track record to judge: no evidence of how well the road closures work, how accurate the distance measurement is, how the aid stations are stocked, or whether a stated cutoff is enforced. A first edition asks runners to take all of that on trust.

The course

Not published. The organiser identifies the marathon only as a 42.2 km road race in Blois. There is no course map, no GPX file, no road list, no start or finish venue, no loop count and no elevation profile, which is why this page carries no logistics map and no elevation chart. Drawing either would mean inventing the route.

Two temptations are worth naming so they can be refused. The first is to borrow the Cheverny course, which runs a different race from a different start under a different organiser. The second is to reason from the city itself: Blois has a real height difference between the Loire riverfront and the château and upper town, and it would be easy to turn that into a claim about a hilly finish or a flat river course. Neither is evidence. The route is not described here as flat, fast, rolling or hilly, because nobody outside the organisation currently knows which it is.

Also unknown, and worth planning around: whether the course is one loop, several, or point-to-point; which Loire bridges, banks and streets it uses; the split between road and path surface; cumulative ascent; water-station positions; timing mats; and the road-reopening schedule. The stated distance of 42.2 km, against the standard 42.195 km, is itself a small signal that the measurement has not been put through a certification process.

Pacers and aid stations

Neither is published. There is no pacer programme, wave structure, proof-of-time system or elite corral, and no marathon-specific aid-station table. Third-party listings mention refreshments across the wider festival without giving distances or products for the marathon itself. The practical position: carry your own nutrition, plan your own fluid strategy, and treat anything on course as a bonus until the organiser publishes a plan.

What to wear

Mid-November in the Loire Valley means cool conditions, short daylight and a real chance of rain, but no climate figure is published on this page because none was drawn from a climatological source for Blois. Check a normal for mid-November before packing, then a short-range forecast before travelling.

The unusual complication here is the start time, which has not been announced. A late-morning start in mid-November is a different clothing problem from an early one, so keep the decision open: pack for a cold wait as well as for the run, and confirm the time as soon as the organiser publishes it.

Entry

Entry is direct and online through the November RUN ticketing platform, with no ballot and no qualifying time. The 42.2 km road race is priced at €10 and carries a minimum age of 19 at 31 December.

Ten euros is worth pausing on. It is a fraction of what a French road marathon normally costs, well below the €58 of a long-established race like La Rochelle, and first-edition pricing is exactly the kind that moves once permits, timing, insurance and road closures are costed properly. Recheck the price at the point of entering.

The organiser links a règlement document whose contents have not been published in a form this page could read, so the following all remain unknown: PPS or licence requirements for unlicensed runners, the headphone policy, bag rules, toilet provision, personal-hydration rules, and the transfer, refund and deferral terms. Entrant cap and closing date are also unpublished. For a €10 entry the financial exposure is small; the exposure that matters is non-refundable travel and accommodation booked against a race whose date, time and start location are not all settled.

Fast Runner / GFA Standards

Not applicable. There is no good-for-age route, no qualifying-time table and no charity-place allocation. No tour-operator package exists for a first edition.

Race Weekend

The date, and why it needs confirming

The organiser gives festival dates of 15 to 16 November 2026 and labels the road marathon “dimanche”. 15 November 2026 is a Sunday, so the marathon’s own day label and the calendar agree, which is why Sunday 15 November is given as the likely race day throughout this page. The same listing labels other formats “samedi” against 16 November, which is a Monday, and that half does not reconcile: the actual Saturday of that weekend is 14 November. The listing is reproduced here as published. Confirm the day and the start time with the organiser before booking travel.

Bib collection

Not published. No collection venue, opening hours, expo format or race-morning pickup policy has been announced. Blois has several venues that would plausibly host one, and this page names none of them, because a guess about where to collect a bib is worse than no answer at all. Allow time on the Saturday for a collection window that may yet be announced.

Getting to the start

Unknown, because the start itself is unknown. What can be said is the general shape of the city: Blois is compact, Blois-Chambord station sits within walking distance of the historic centre, and most plausible race sites in the city are walkable from central accommodation. No shuttle, park-and-ride, road-closure map or free race-day transport entitlement has been published, so do not assume one exists.

Spectating

No route map means no honest sighting plan. The obvious guesses, the château and the Loire riverfront, are guesses. Live tracking and timing-mat information are also unannounced. Supporters travelling for this one should plan around the finish area once it is named, and treat the rest of the day as unstructured.

Post-race food

Central Blois has a good spread of restaurants around the historic centre and the river, and the city is small enough that most of it is within reach of wherever the race ends up finishing. Specific recommendations are held back until the finish zone is confirmed, and mid-November Sunday hours in a Loire town are worth checking on the day.

Where to Stay

The site’s usual rule is to book close to the finish. That rule needs a finish, and this race does not have a published one, so the recommendation here is different: book for the railway station and for flexibility, and change nothing else until the organiser names a venue.

Blois-Chambord station and the west-centre

The station area is the most robust base while the race site is unknown. It handles rail arrival and post-race departure with the least friction, sits within walking distance of the centre, and stays sensible whichever part of the city the route eventually uses. If you want one decision that will not need revisiting, this is it.

Central historic Blois

Central historic Blois is the better base for the weekend itself, with the Château Royal, the restaurants and the old streets on the doorstep. The caveat is physical: the upper town has steps and real gradient, which is a minor charm before a marathon and a genuine nuisance the evening after one. Pick this for the visit, not the logistics.

The Loire riverfront

The Loire riverfront offers the views and the quieter post-race evening, and it would be well placed if the course turns out to use the central river corridor. Nothing yet establishes that it will, so treat the position as a pleasant bet.

The eastern convention-centre side

The eastern side of the city would come into play if the organiser eventually bases the race around larger event infrastructure, which is a common choice for a festival with this many formats. There is no evidence yet that it will, so this is a district to watch before booking.

Hotels in Blois

No official race hotel block exists for the first edition. These are current Blois properties listed by their distance to the station, not by proximity to a start line nobody has published.

Booking timeline

With no previous edition there is no demand pattern to plan against, and no ballot means no results date to wait for. Book refundable or flexible rates until the organiser announces the start zone and the exact day, then firm them up. Rail tickets are the part worth booking early once the day is settled: Blois is a small station on a busy line, and a mid-November Sunday return to Paris fills up like any other.

See & Do

Mid-November means short daylight, cool weather and reduced seasonal opening across the Loire Valley. Check hours before committing to anything: several Blois attractions run winter schedules, and one of the obvious ones is shut for this exact weekend.

Château Royal de Blois

In the centre of the city, so walkable from anywhere central. The tourist office describes it as a royal residence spanning the 13th to 17th centuries, and it is the reason most people come to Blois at all. Indoors, which counts for a lot in November.

Maison de la Magie

Directly opposite the château, and worth mentioning mainly to save a wasted walk: its published 2026 opening periods stop on 1 November and resume on 19 December, so it is not shown as open for a 15 November race weekend. Recheck only if the organiser or the venue announces new dates.

The Loire riverfront and the Jacques-Gabriel bridge

Free, outdoors and flat, which makes it the most useful recovery walk in the city. It is also the quickest way to understand how Blois is laid out between the river and the upper town, which is worth doing if you are still waiting on a course map.

Chambord and Cheverny

The two obvious Loire day trips from Blois, and both involve more travel and more walking than a recovery day may want. Chambord in particular is a large site covered on foot. Note again that a leisure visit to the Château de Cheverny has nothing to do with the separate Marathon de Cheverny.

After the Race

Blois sits in the middle of the Loire Valley, which makes the after-race question easy in principle and awkward in practice. Chambord and Cheverny are the closest châteaux, Amboise and Tours run west along the river, and Orléans is east toward Paris. All four are reasonable extensions to a November weekend, and all four are better in longer daylight than mid-November offers.

No itineraries are published for Blois yet. Writing them properly means checking transport, timings and winter opening for each destination, and none of that can be anchored sensibly to a finish line that has not been announced. They will follow once the organiser publishes the race details. In the meantime, the practical advice is to treat the Monday as the travel day: the last direct trains from Blois back toward Paris and the timing of a Loire Valley bus connection are the two things that most often reshape a plan here.