
The Suntrust National Marathon is tomorrow, Saturday March 21, and much of the city will be affected by mass road closures and detours.
Details on Metrorail and Metrobus schedule changes can be found here. The bottom line: a whole lot buses are being rerouted to go around the race course. Pretty much every bus that travels through the center of the city will be affected: the 5A, 13A, 13B, 13F, 13G, 32, 34, 36, 38B, 42, 52, 54, 64, 70, 80, 90, 92, 96, 98, A42, A46, A48, B2, D4, D6, D8, G8, H2, H4, H8, L2, M6, N6, N22, P6, S2, S4, U6, V8, X2 and X8. Whew! Look up your specific route’s detours here. To help deal with the mess, Metro is opening at 5 a.m. tomorrow to accommodate runners trying to reach the race by its 7 a.m. start time (FYI, the starting line is near the Stadium-Armory station, so keep that in mind as you plan your mornings).
As for the street closures, they are many, and unless you really plan ahead, we’d pretty much recommend not trying to drive inside the city until after 1:30 p.m. or so, when they should all be cleared. That said, many closures will be conducted on a rolling basis, cleared away after all the runners move out of that area. Vehicular traffic will be permitted to cross the race route at certain intersections, at the discretion of MPD officers posted there, provided it doesn’t interfere with the runners. Also know that if you park your car anywhere near the race route, you may not be allowed to move it until after runners have cleared the area.
DDOT sent out an impressively long list of approximate times and areas for the rolling street closures, which we’ve posted below the jump.