Emergency no-parking restrictions and a wave of street and bridge closures are set to hit the Marine Corps Marathon route on Sunday, with some limits starting before dawn and others running into the afternoon and evening. The 51st Marine Corps Marathon begins Sunday, Oct. 25, with the main race starting at 7:20 a.m. on Route 110 in Arlington.
Drivers in D.C. should expect emergency no-parking restrictions from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday along certain streets, followed by street and bridge closures from about 5:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Police said vehicles parked in violation of posted emergency restrictions will be ticketed and towed. The timing matters because many people will be moving early for the race, and the restrictions begin before sunrise.
Arlington is under a longer set of rules. Restrictions on part of southbound Route 110 were scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Saturday, more Arlington closures begin around 3 a.m. Sunday, and some are expected to continue until about 6 p.m. Southbound Route 110 between Washington Boulevard and Route 1 is scheduled to stay closed until 5 p.m. Sunday, while other restrictions will affect roads around Rosslyn, the Pentagon and Crystal City. Several Interstate 395 ramps and express lane access points will also close.
Transit will help some of the pressure, but not all of it. Metrorail opens at 5 a.m. Sunday, and Arlington Cemetery station is set to open at about 9 a.m., giving runners and spectators an early option even as the road network stays tight around the course.
The friction for drivers is that the clock is not fixed. Police said all closure times are subject to change, which leaves room for the kind of race-day adjustments that can turn a planned detour into a longer wait. The Marine Corps Marathon route also reaches Georgetown, the National Mall, Rosslyn, the Pentagon area and Crystal City, so the safest move is to plan for delays and use alternate routes through the affected areas.
For Sunday, the big question is not whether roads will be affected — they will be — but how long the bottlenecks last once the race is underway and cleanup begins. Reopening times vary by location, and on a day like this, that difference can be the gap between a quick trip and a stalled one.
