Columbus Marathon Weekend Arrives: Saturday's Jesse Owens 5K Leads a Weekend of Closures and Bus Reroutes
Columbus is a city in Franklin County, Ohio. The Nationwide Children's Hospital Columbus Marathon weekend takes over downtown Columbus from October 16 to 18. On Saturday, October 17, the Health and Fitness Expo continues at the Greater Columbus Convention Center from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the Jesse Owens 5K and 1 Mile races start at 9 a.m. at North Bank Park, and the White Castle Kids' Run follows at 11 a.m. Organizers expect more than 100,000 people at marathon-related events across the weekend.
The main races start Sunday, October 18, at 7:30 a.m. at North Bank Park, 311 W. Long St, with the wheelchair division off at 7:25 a.m. and corrals opening at 6 a.m. More than 15,000 runners are expected in the marathon and half marathon. Both races follow a new route this year: the half marathon heads east on Broad Street toward Bexley before looping through German Village and returning north on High Street, while the full marathon continues through the Short North and the Ohio State University area, Upper Arlington, Grandview Heights and Victorian Village before finishing back at North Bank Park.
Road closures around North Bank Park began Friday at 9 a.m., when Long Street closed. Streets from Hocking Street to Neil Avenue stay closed until 6 p.m. Sunday, with a temporary reopening from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday for traffic heading to the Columbus Blue Jackets game at Nationwide Arena, and additional sections of Spring Street close late Saturday night. On Sunday, the race course itself will close on a rolling basis from the 7:30 a.m. start, with all streets reopening by 6 p.m.
For transit riders, the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) is rerouting 11 routes plus the Zoo Bus downtown from about 9 a.m. to noon Saturday for the Jesse Owens 5K. On Sunday, 18 services will be rerouted and more than 800 stops across downtown, German Village, Bexley, North Bank, the Arena District, Short North, Victorian Village, the Ohio State University campus, Grandview Heights and Upper Arlington will be closed from 5 a.m., with temporary transfer points at Spring and Long streets near Fourth Street and reroutes expected to end by mid-afternoon.
Separately, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) will close Interstate 70 between Interstate 71 and State Route 315 downtown on three consecutive nights this weekend — October 16, 17 and 18 — from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., as part of ODOT's $1.4 billion Downtown Ramp Up project, with a signed state-route detour in place.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：往届Columbus马拉松在Nationwide Arena附近的赛道气球拱门（资料图）。Photo: Balloon arches over the Columbus Marathon course near Nationwide Arena in a previous year (file photo). Image: Mark Sundstrom, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
