Devin Horseman-Guy has been training on the streets of Baltimore all year. On Saturday, he owned them.
The 27-year-old Baltimore runner won the men's race at the 2026 Baltimore Marathon in 2 hours, 25 minutes and 18 seconds, leading from start to finish at the 26th annual Baltimore Running Festival. Nicole Shelton, 27, of Morristown, New Jersey, won the women's race in 2:53:06, erasing a deficit of nearly three minutes over the final six miles for the first marathon win of her life — a victory so unexpected that the finish-line ribbon went to the wrong runner.
Devin Horseman-Guy Runs Away From the Men's Field
There was never much doubt in the men's race. Horseman-Guy, who went to Southern High School in Harwood and ran cross country and track and field at Frostburg State University, crossed the line on Pratt Street with no one else in view, averaging 5:32 per mile. Patrick Blair, 45, of Catonsville was second in 2:28:47, about three and a half minutes back, and Ryan Fan, 29, of Pikesville finished third in 2:32:21.
It was also a personal best. Horseman-Guy said he ran 2:25:23 at the Chicago Marathon last year, and he was glancing at his watch all the way down the final stretch to make sure he would beat it.
He credited home-course knowledge more than anything. Baltimore's marathon is not a fast, flat course — the climb from roughly mile 16 to mile 20 is where races here are usually decided — and Horseman-Guy said he spent his summer rehearsing exactly that stretch.
"I live here in the city, so I train here all year. So it's kind of like my backyard," Horseman-Guy told WBAL-TV after the race. "I was really focused on, let's just get to the top. You've got to get to the top. All summer long I was training on that hill. So it's just like, all right, we're here. Let's just get to the top."
By the time he reached the downtown crowds, he said, the hard part was over.
"It was just like, all right, all the work is done," he said. "These people are going to get me to the finish line."
Asked what keeps him going, Horseman-Guy kept it simple — and pointed to the humid Maryland summer he had just trained through.
"Every day is not going to be the best. There's days where you're like, do I really want to go out here and do this? Especially in the summer when it's humid and hot," he said. "But you just gotta put the shoes on and get outside."
He also framed the sport as a privilege. "Not a lot of people get to do what I do," Horseman-Guy said. "So just putting one foot in front of the other is kind of my mindset. Even when you're tired, you've got to do it."
Nicole Shelton's Late Charge Wins the Women's Race
The women's race was a different story entirely.
Maeve Thistel, 25, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, held a lead of nearly three minutes at the 20-mile checkpoint, according to The Baltimore Sun, and looked to be on her way to the win. Shelton, running her own pace behind her, didn't think she was in the hunt at all.
"Honestly, I didn't expect it at all, really," Shelton told WBAL-TV. "It wasn't until the last mile, maybe like half a mile ago, I could see first place right in front of me and it was like, oh my gosh."
She caught and passed Thistel inside the final half mile. To spectators, it looked decisive. Shelton said it felt anything but.
"In my head, I was like, OK, I just have to maintain my pace," she said. "If she tries to sprint to the finish, she's got me. This is all I have left in the tank. So it really was just kind of hoping. And then finally it fell through."
The victory hadn't fully landed when she spoke minutes later. "Honestly, I don't think it's hit me," Shelton said. "The last mile of a marathon, you're just delirious. You're not in your head anymore. It's just like, the faster I run, the faster I can be finished. I think you give it a couple of minutes and it'll sink in more, and I'll be on cloud nine."
Confusion at the Finish Line
Shelton's surge was so late, and so unexpected, that it slipped past the finish-line crew.
Two Ravens cheerleaders were holding the women's winner's ribbon across Pratt Street, and when Thistel came around the final corner in 2:53:32, she grabbed it and raised it over her head. Shelton had actually finished 26 seconds earlier without breaking any tape, The Sun reported, crossing amid a steady stream of women's half-marathon runners who were arriving at the same time. Organizers then had to sort out who had actually won.
Shelton, who hadn't realized she was supposed to run through a ribbon at all, was as surprised as anyone when the mix-up was explained to her. The official results list her first among women and 33rd overall. Thistel was second, and Emma Puetz, 24, of Baltimore finished third in 2:56:23.
Thistel, for her part, came away happy with the race, telling The Sun she had worried a smaller marathon might lack energy and instead found spectators lining the course.
Asked what she hoped young women watching her finish would take from it, Shelton pointed to the sport's growth. "I say this as an amateur, but women's running has come so far in just the last six or seven years," she said. "For anyone watching — women can go out there and do it, and be determined and be tough."
2026 Baltimore Marathon Results: Top Finishers
| Place | Men | Time | Women | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Devin Horseman-Guy (Baltimore) | 2:25:18 | Nicole Shelton (Morristown, N.J.) | 2:53:06 |
| 2 | Patrick Blair (Catonsville) | 2:28:47 | Maeve Thistel (Lancaster, Pa.) | 2:53:32 |
| 3 | Ryan Fan (Pikesville) | 2:32:21 | Emma Puetz (Baltimore) | 2:56:23 |
Gun times, per preliminary SVE Timing results. Some outlets have reported times that differ by a second.
Other Baltimore Running Festival Winners
Baidy Ba, 23, of Columbia won the men's half marathon in 1:05:52, and Ainsley Pressl, 27, of Baltimore won the women's half in 1:18:18. In the 10K, Cooper Cawthra of Houston (29:32) and Marissa Dailey of Phoenix (35:42) took the men's and women's titles. Damien Dilcher of Baltimore (14:49) and Danielle Siebert of College Park (19:18) won the 5K.
Organizers expected more than 15,000 participants across the festival's races, roughly 1,000 more than last year. The marathon, a Boston Marathon qualifier, started at 8 a.m. near Paca and Camden streets outside Camden Yards and wound through the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill and Fells Point and past the Maryland Zoo before finishing downtown. Conditions were close to ideal for distance running, a fact Horseman-Guy said he took full advantage of.