The weekend a block has to cover
The CNO Financial Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K run Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. Race weekend runs Nov. 5 to 7.
The Monumental Health and Fitness Expo and packet pickup run Thursday, Nov. 5, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Friday, Nov. 6, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., at the Indiana Convention Center.
Gear check opens at 6:30 a.m. Saturday at Washington Street and West Street. The half marathon and the marathon start at 8 a.m., the 5K at 8:40 a.m., and the course closes at 3:30 p.m.
Every participant collects the official clear gear check bag at the expo. Race morning accepts that bag alone, so the expo visit sits inside the stay.
A Friday arrival covers the longer expo window and the 6:30 a.m. gear check on one night. A Thursday arrival adds the shorter expo window and one more night.
What the organiser's block publishes
Beyond Monumental holds guest rooms at a number of downtown hotels. The 2026 Hotel Block site asks the visitor to select “Attendee” in the dropdown. The block takes no access code.
Four dates govern the block. Sept. 29 is the deadline to assign guest occupant names to rooms held under one name. Oct. 8 is the deadline to cancel without penalty, and a $25 fee attaches to each reservation cancelled after Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. Oct. 5 through Oct. 16 is the window to make a new reservation or add a night, and the date varies by hotel and stays subject to availability. Oct. 22 is the deadline to modify an existing reservation through the Visit Indy Housing Bureau. After Oct. 22 the hotel handles every change and every new request.
The block page publishes no rate, no minimum hold, no attrition percentage and no cap on the rooms one name may hold. Ask the bureau for each figure.
A search that returns no availability can still leave single or non-sequential nights, and the page directs the guest to call the hotel on those dates. Added days may sit outside block pricing.
The Visit Indy Housing Bureau keeps a waitlist for a preferred property and calls when that property opens for the requested dates. housing@visitindy.com and 317-262-8191 answer Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.
The name deadline is the club's own
Guest occupant names attach to the rooms held under one reservation name, so the club roster has to exist by Sept. 29. That date falls 39 days before race day.
General registration for all in-person distances is sold out, and limited charity entries remain. Entry through an official charity partner carries a fundraising or donation minimum set by that organisation, so a club's final room count can move late in the calendar.
One request instead of a dozen reservations
A club that wants a single contract can put the weekend out as one group-rate request and let competing hotels quote it. groupRooms publishes the scope: most hotels offer group rates from 10 or more rooms per night, and some quote from five rooms depending on season and availability.
The platform states 103,857 hotels across 46 states, savings of 15 to 40 percent below rack rates, more than 50 hotels reached per request, responses inside 24 to 72 hours, and no fee to submit. The planner pays the hotel directly, and the platform states that it never adds a commission to the rate.
The platform's Indianapolis directory lists 273 hotels that accept a request.
The terms that decide the cost of a shortfall
Contract language carries the risk. The room-block guide published by Blocks names five levers: the pickup floor, a rolling release schedule with review dates at 90, 60 and 30 days out, a resell or mitigation credit, force majeure language, and an audit of the hotel's final pickup report.
The guide sets the cutoff date against the rooming list and attrition against the room nights the group consumes. It works a three-night example on a 100-room block with an 80 percent floor, where 300 committed room nights put 240 room nights at risk, and it notes that many contracts measure a shortfall per night.
Ask each property for the pickup floor as a percentage, the review dates, the treatment of a no-show against the floor, and whether the shortfall is measured per night or across the stay.
Send the request with the dates the race fixes: Thursday, Nov. 5, Friday, Nov. 6 and Saturday, Nov. 7.
