The 2026 Baltimore Running Festival which includes a 5K, 10K, Half-Marathon, and the full Baltimore Marathon is set to take place this weekend. With a total of around 14,500+ runners across all the Baltimore Running Festival events, there are usually around 4,000 runners in the flagship Baltimore Marathon and one of those runners is Baltimore Police Detective Zachary Rutherford.
Detective Rutherford is speedy. He runs 6:13 miles which over the course of 26.2 miles puts him at a marathon time of 2:42:53. For comparison, the global average marathon time for men 4 hours and 21 minutes and 4 hours and 48 minutes for women. A 2:42:53 marathon time is fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon regardless of the age group. It’s fast!
So why exactly will he start last? To raise money for charity, of course.
Baltimore PD Detective Will Start Marathon In Last Place To Raise Money For Charity
For the 2026 Baltimore Running Festival, Detective Zachary Rutherford is part of the ‘Charity Chasers’ where they earn donations for every runner they pass in the race. He is running in partnership with the Signal 13 Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which supports active-duty and civilian personnel of the Baltimore City PD…