COLUMBUS — More than 15,000 runners will take over Columbus streets on Sunday, Oct. 18, for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon and Half Marathon — and this year they will run a course with a new stretch through the South Side.
Both races start and finish near North Bank Park downtown, at 311 W. Long St. The marathon and half-marathon begin at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, with the wheelchair division starting at 7:25 a.m. and corrals opening at 6 a.m. Runners should expect a cold start, with frost possible early Sunday morning under the weekend’s freeze watch.
The change comes near mile 9. After passing Nationwide Children’s Hospital as the course has long done, runners now head west on Livingston Avenue, turn south onto Parsons Avenue, and continue to Thurman Avenue before looping through German Village near Schiller Park and heading north on High Street toward downtown.
Race director Darris Blackford has said the changes were designed to make the route safer and more runner-friendly while showcasing Parsons Avenue, a corridor he described as going through a lot of positive change. Organizers met with businesses and community groups along the new stretch ahead of race weekend, and Blackford said they were receptive and eager to take part.
The shared opening of the two courses takes runners east along Broad Street, past the Columbus Museum of Art and Franklin Park Conservatory on the way toward Bexley, following Drexel Avenue, East Main Street, and South Nelson Road before returning west on Broad Street. Runners then turn through Olde Towne East by way of Ohio Avenue, Bryden Road, and 18th Street toward Livingston Avenue and the hospital.
Half-marathon runners cover 13.1 miles: after the new Parsons Avenue stretch and the German Village loop, they head north on High Street and return to the North Bank Park finish. Marathon runners cover the full 26.2 miles, continuing north from downtown through the Short North and the Ohio State University area, past Ohio Stadium, and through Upper Arlington, Grandview Heights, and Victorian Village before finishing back at North Bank Park.
For everyone not running, Sunday means road closures. Drivers should expect rolling closures along both race routes beginning at 7:30 a.m., and some streets around the start and finish area began closing on Friday, Oct. 16. The marathon caps a crowded Columbus weekend that also includes a stadium concert on Saturday, so anyone heading downtown should plan extra time.
Spectators, meanwhile, get a new cheering map this year. The Parsons Avenue and Thurman Avenue stretch, German Village, and the High Street run back toward North Bank Park are all first-year or familiar vantage points where the redesigned course will show Columbus neighborhoods to a field of runners drawn from across the country.
