Run Ottawa has confirmed the 2026 Tamarack Homes Ottawa International Marathon elite field, with Canadian distance standouts Natasha Wodak and Rory Linkletter heading a deep international line-up for the May 24 race. The 7am start from Ottawa City Hall doubles as the Athletics Canada national marathon championship and serves as a soft test for several Canadian athletes building toward Glasgow's 2026 Commonwealth Games and the autumn World Athletics Road Running Championships. Forecasts for the long-range outlook show a cool, possibly damp morning with a light tailwind on the back half, conditions in which the Ottawa course has historically gone fast.
The men's race is led on paper by Ethiopia's Shura Kitata, the 2020 London Marathon champion, who returns at 2:03:59 and is using Ottawa as his first marathon since a quiet build at altitude in Sululta. Compatriot Asrar Hiyrden brings an identical 2:03:59 personal best, while Kenyan duo Bernard Ngeno and Edwin Kibet sit in the 2:06 to 2:07 band. Linkletter is the fastest Canadian entered after his 2:08:01 at Houston in January and will be racing for the national title and the win bonus, with Thomas Broatch (2:10:35) and a returning Lee Wesselius (2:13:52) the next-best Canadians on time.
The most-anticipated debut belongs to John Gay. The Olympic steeplechaser, who finished sixth at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, is moving up to the marathon for what he has called a "proper crack" at the distance during his prime. Gay's 13:13 5k and 27:42 10k credentials suggest he can sit comfortably in any pack the Africans choose to run on Sunday, but the marathon's cruel late miles tend to discriminate hard against debutants whatever their track speed. He is being paced through 30 kilometres by training partner Mike Tate.
The women's field is unusually deep for an Ottawa edition. Wodak, the 32-time Canadian national champion, races her first Ottawa Marathon and her first race since a 31st-placed run in Tokyo. She enters with a 2:23:12 personal best and has set as her stated goal a Canadian-record-pace effort if the conditions cooperate. Quebec's Élissa Legault arrives off a 2:29:05 sub-2:30 breakthrough at Valencia in December and a 1:11:25 half-marathon best in March, and former Université Laval athlete Jade Bérubé makes her own marathon debut. Three Kenyan athletes in the 2:24 to 2:26 group complete the front of the field.
Off the elite tier, the wider Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend is again the largest single running event in Canada, with more than 32,000 entries spread across the marathon, two-person team relay, half marathon, 10k and 5k. The 10k on Saturday evening retains its World Athletics gold-label status and a stacked elite field of its own, headlined by Geneviève Lalonde and Cam Levins. Run Ottawa says the marathon is sold out three weeks earlier than in 2025, and that road closures will run from Friday afternoon through to early Sunday evening.