Air Force Marathon reveals featured aircraft, changes for 2026 event

Air Force Marathon organizers unveiled this year’s featured aircraft for the event on Wednesday.

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The F-16 Thunderbird will be the featured wings of the 30th annual Air Force Marathon.

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The event, running in conjunction with America’s 250th birthday celebration this summer, expects more than 8,000 participants to take part in the 5K, half-marathon, and full marathon.

The full marathon will go off at 6:30 a.m. to minimize the heat.

“Incredibly excited that we do this in partnership with our amazing Dayton community,” Col. Marietta Sanders, ADA Commission Support Group Commander at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, said. “It really demonstrates that mission partnership that we have across the local community and the mission here at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, an event of this magnitude doesn’t happen with a whole lot of support.”

For the first time, runners taking part in the half-marathon will experience running on the base and the Fairborn community.

“Another change this year would be the half-marathon is going to be running through the Fair Board Fly Zone for the first time ever,” Jasmine Gwin, Air Force Marathon Interim Director, said. “And the Fair Board Fly Zone is definitely our most exciting and entertaining part of the race. The Fairborn community definitely shows up, and they’re just very entertaining for all of our runners.”

As part of the festivities, the National Museum of the United States Air Force and the finish line area will be open to the public, but all guests will have to go through a security screening.

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