I'm wondering if anyone has an insider scoop on the course for this year's St. Louis Marathon. I plan on doing a marathon this spring and have been looking around. There is no course map on the website currently. I've hesitated signing up for St. Louis because I'd love to know for sure if the course will go through more neighborhoods and less of the riverfront trail than previous years.
I'm anxious for the course map to be released as well. I am hopeful that the return of the start and finish to Downtown West means that the course will be more similar to how it was set up a decade ago. In that case, it would go west initially to Forest Park and Clayton before returning to Downtown and going south through Soulard and coming back up Broadway.
https://www.gostlouis.org/stlmarathon/course
The inclusion of Old North St. Louis is a nice surprise!
The inclusion of Old North St. Louis is a nice surprise!
That's exciting! The course will go right by my front door on North Market. Twice!
Haven't ever participated but do they always backtrack along the same routes? I get that it's a huge hassle for traffic but kinda lame that you have to track back long parts you already ran.
It didn't last year. Started in FP to Clayton then all the way to the river.
Excited for the new route. I've done it for the past couple years and as quincunx says, we would start in FP, head west until Downtown Clayton and then turn East for a Downtown finish for the half marathoners. The full marathon would continue North along the river and then backtrack to finish at the 4 Seasons.
I agree that it would be nice to not have to backtrack so much, but I think the logistic hurdles of closing down multiple areas (Forest Park, Clayton, Delmar) is perceived as just too much. The marathon organization probably also does not have quite enough local capital to justify the street closures to the potentially impacted area stakeholders. I think the fact that the half (which will absolutely be the bigger turnout of the two) is only leaving Downtown to go through Soulard really emphasizes this.
I said that I am excited about this new routeSTL526 wrote: ↑Feb 05, 2024I agree that it would be nice to not have to backtrack so much, but I think the logistic hurdles of closing down multiple areas (Forest Park, Clayton, Delmar) is perceived as just too much. The marathon organization probably also does not have quite enough local capital to justify the street closures to the potentially impacted area stakeholders. I think the fact that the half (which will absolutely be the bigger turnout of the two) is only leaving Downtown to go through Soulard really emphasizes this.
Looks like a revised course map is out. Less east side and more arch.
Interestingly, the original course map was titled v.2.1 and the "new" one is titled v1
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Interestingly, the original course map was titled v.2.1 and the "new" one is titled v1
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gary kreie wrote: ↑2:48 PM - Jan 161904 First American Olympic Marathon Route.
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Nice. I didn't know but I always thought it would be a fun historic thing to do. Happy to see it.
St. Louis vs. Phoenix for 2028 Olympic Trials
Great to see the Sports Commission continuing to put the city out there for hosting high-caliber events. In 2004, when we hosted the women's trials, the course started and ended at WashU and was just a few loops around Forest Park and back. I wonder if they're proposing a similar course this time around, or if they're planning to show off more of the city/region.
Great to see the Sports Commission continuing to put the city out there for hosting high-caliber events. In 2004, when we hosted the women's trials, the course started and ended at WashU and was just a few loops around Forest Park and back. I wonder if they're proposing a similar course this time around, or if they're planning to show off more of the city/region.
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Downtown will be part of the route and really a big event zone