Los Angeles Marathon to Start at Dodgers Stadium

Don’t expect to go anywhere this Sunday morning, as Echo Park is going to be the starting point for the Los Angeles Marathon. Aside from the actual marathon on Sunday, Dodger’s Stadium will be hosting the Los Angeles Marathon Expo on Friday, March 19th (from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm) which all of those thousands of marathon runners will have to visit in order to pick up their numbers and swag. Saturday, March 20th is the second day of the expo as well as the Los Angeles 5K.

The Los Angeles Marathon will begin at 7:24 am on Sunday, March 21st. Road closures will begin at 5:00 am and go until 10:00 am. It looks like the route goes down Elysian Park then heads east on Sunset before curving around and going back up Temple and Bellevue to Glendale. The route then runs up Glendale and past the lake before hitting Sunset again and going west.
View 2010 LA Marathon Course in a larger map

Regarding parking for the event, the Manager of Neighborhood Relations for the Dodgers says that “all-day parking is not allowed on the Stadium and all participants are being discouraged from parking in the immediate community. Additionally, the Department of Transportation will be posting signs prohibiting event parking around the Stadium.” Let’s just hope the runners take advantage of the shuttle bringing them to Dodger’s Stadium from Santa Monica.

It sounds like I’m complaining about this, doesn’t it? As if I’m ever out of bed before 10:00 am on a Sunday anyway. But honestly, good luck to all the runners! It’s gonna be painful, but you can do it! As for the rest of us? If you’re willing to wade through a sea of people, you could totally walk into the expo on Friday and Saturday and score some free PowerBars, water bottles, t-shirts and bananas.