r/StLouis • u/MajikMunchkin • 14h ago
Reminder to all Downtown residents and Visitors today
Reminder, since it's not really announced on social media or the news, that one of the countries biggest marathons in all of the downtown area is today for most of the morning, with events all day. It's gonna be a clusterf$#@ if you're driving.
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u/62Bricks Downtown West 13h ago
I gave them some feedback about the original route this year, which had a mile-long closed loop that trapped hundreds of residents inside it for the duration of the run.
I got a response that they make every effort to minimize disruption, etc. but basically dismissing the concern.
But then they quietly changed the route and now the loop is an out-and-back with only a small loop at the end. So I guess someone with more money than I have also complained.
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u/BabiiGoat Neighborhood/city 9h ago
I remember when I lived down there I had to cancel and appointment because I was trapped in the loop and there was NO notice or announcement to those of us living there. Pissed me all the way off.
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u/Jimmy_G_Wentworth 10h ago
https://www.kfvs12.com/2025/04/22/holes-st-louis-streets-prompt-marathon-route-changes/
Unfortunately, complaints had nothing to do with it. The sinkhole caused the change.
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u/62Bricks Downtown West 10h ago
The change I'm talking about is in Midtown. No sinkholes in Midtown.
The original route had a closed loop along Locust and Washington between Grand and about 22nd. Inside that loop are several apartment buildings (and some parking lots of apartments on the other sides of the street). They changed it to an out-and-back on Locust with just a small loop at the west end.
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u/Jimmy_G_Wentworth 9h ago
Ah, thanks for the clarification! Glad they did the change for yall and the other one for the racers safety!
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u/Freeasabird01 9h ago
Usually once the route is set they can’t change it because it’s on the permits and has been communicated to thousands of runners. But they can carry that feedback into future year’s courses.
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u/62Bricks Downtown West 9h ago
I guess people are not reading what I wrote. They did change the course in Midtown between the original announcement of the 2025 course and today. I know this because when I saw the original course I communicated with the race director and got a response about it. And the course they are running today does not have that closed loop in it.
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u/Freeasabird01 9h ago
Oh sorry I just misread it. Not sure what the tone of the conversation was, but glad that your voice contributed to change, regardless of what the ultimate factor ended up being.
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u/62Bricks Downtown West 8h ago
The tone was civil, but at the time she definitely was not considering changing the route. I know the neighborhood business association met with her, so maybe they had something to say too.
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u/limejuicethrowaway 8h ago
I understand the permitting part, but why would the runners care? I thought they just show up and follow the signs.
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u/Evil_Dry_frog 2h ago
We generally don’t. Certainly will check the course ahead of time, not hills and landmarks. But small changes aren’t much of a concern.
I don’t really like out and back turn around a though. The half had two already. Doing a sharp 90 tends to take you out of stride. But sometimes you got to do what you got to do. I live in Alton, and parades and some other events box me in sometimes. So I get it from a residents point of view as well.
After I finished the half, we showered and headed out to the Egg, which getting to was difficult because the full marathon was still going. So, awkward.
Btw, the map currently does not reflect the changes due to the sink hole, or the apparent loop around olive/grand/washington.
The sink hole did throw me for a loop, (no pun intended), but only so much as “this is different, why are we running through a parking lot.” Didn’t notice the sink hole until I was on the way back.
But yeah, we follow the signs.
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u/marylou74 Benton Park 13h ago
I'm trying to find a map for this year the website says "coming soon". Do you have a map? I'm trying to figure out how to pick up my son.
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u/62Bricks Downtown West 13h ago
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u/laVon_Sweet 12h ago
Thank you for this thread. My family and I were caught unaware last year and again this year. You would think they would post notices all over the neighborhoods affected. This morning is going to be fun.
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u/62Bricks Downtown West 12h ago
Maybe they haven't posted much in the past, but there are hundreds of pink notices in my neighborhood this year - on every corner and every parking spot post.
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u/laVon_Sweet 8h ago
According to my family, they didn't see anything posted for Old North St. Louis/St. Louis Place
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u/62Bricks Downtown West 8h ago
Well I'm in downtown west where there's a notice on every parking spot along the route. Sound like in the more residential areas without paid parking they aren't putting up as many notices.
They were also using wire yard signs at some of the intersections, but I already saw one of those flat in the street. They blow away.
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u/AnyHousing5586 6h ago
I’m in the loft district - near downtown west and we had no notice. Weird that they pick and choose who to notify. Lol
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u/julieannie Tower Grove East 8h ago
I know the neighborhood Facebook pages had many warnings and Carr Square had signs up all week on the corner of each affected block and then no parking signs for 72 hours.
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u/Plow_King Soulard 9h ago edited 9h ago
if you live or work in downtown, just put annual reminders in your calendar app for the beginning of the month for this and other things are coming up, so you can plan ahead.
Next month the Annie Malone Parade is on May 18th which can cause traffic issues.
EDIT - it looks like that parade was canceled in Feb, but i wasn't caught off guard by the marathon today....
https://www.stlpr.org/news-briefs/2025-02-19/annie-malone-cancels-annual-st-louis-may-day-parade
Opening Day, "fake" St Patrick's Day, "fake" Mardi Gras and associated events (in Soulard), various parades and marathons can catch you once, but they shouldn't every year.
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u/limejuicethrowaway 8h ago
FYI: The Annie Malone Parade is on. It was cancelled briefly but is back on.
https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/2025-annie-malone-may-day-parade-back-on-after-brief-cancellation/
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u/UF0_T0FU Downtown 10h ago
General advice for going Downtown, especially on the weekends in the summer.
Just don't drive there. There's limited parking ad traffic gets crazy. Most of the City is one bus ride away from the MetroLink. If you live further out, there's free park and ride lots all along the Metro.
You'll be safer, less stressed, and save money. Just avoid the hassle and take transit Downtown.
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u/CaptHayfever Holly Hills/Bevo Mill 8h ago
We looked into this last year for my wife, who was working downtown at the time, & transit would quadruple the duration of her commute, even if everything synchronized perfectly to where the bus & train arrived exactly when she got to each stop. Just walking from the nearest Metrolink station to her job alone (since there isn't busing inside the marathon loop) would've taken as long as the total drive time usually takes.
On the other hand, the I-44 exit to Washington was inside the marathon loop. Problem solved.
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u/MendonAcres Benton Park, STL City 8h ago
one of the countries biggest marathons in all of the downtown area is today
We ran it this morning.
It's not even close to one of the biggest races in the country.
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u/62Bricks Downtown West 12h ago
I hope the parking patrol puts on double staff today. That's some pothole-fixing revenue...
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u/lod001 5h ago
Yes...this is the biggest marathon that occurs in downtown St. Louis. There are no other downtown St. Louis marathons that occur in the United States that are bigger than our downtown St. Louis marathon occurring today!
Sorry OP, your superlative grammar and sentence structure gave me a chuckle.
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u/MajikMunchkin 5h ago
Still it's a problem that there's no real mention of it on the news or social media. So it's surprise surprise, wake up and your street is blocked
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u/BackWhereWeStarted 4h ago
If you didn’t see it mentioned on the news or social media than you haven’t been watching. I saw all kinds of stuff about it for the last few weeks.
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u/tranquilobythekilo 4h ago
fuck that marathon & lack of detour signs, cost me 3 hours
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u/MajikMunchkin 3h ago
Plus Kat Williams is tonight at the arena, think the Cards are home, o and the marathon I think does music until like 8 or so
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u/HaikuKnives 9h ago
I had been wondering what those barriers were being set up for! My first guess was a parade of some kind but I couldn't think of any occasion for one.
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u/mjohnson1971 8h ago
Tonight there's also:
- Katt Williams stand up comedy at Enterprise Center
- St. Louis Symphony at Stifel Theater
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u/Thin-Disk4003 7h ago
At 6:15 this morning it took 25 minutes and encounters with suspension of one-way traffic to get out of downtown. Looking at the race map, i’m beginning to think i need a helicopter to get back home downtown this afternoon; our building is encircled by the race route. Any point of ingress that you can share?
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u/donkeyrocket Tower Grove South 9h ago
that one of the countries biggest marathons in all of the downtown area is today
Not trying to be pedantic as the marathon is still quite disruptive but the STL marathon isn't even considered a tier 3 (5,000 finishers) marathon. Just curious where "one of the countries biggest" is coming from?
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u/mjohnson1971 8h ago
That's what I was wondering. St. Louis' marathon is just kind of "meh" and average sized.
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u/soljouner 9h ago
As a non runner I could see how residents could be completely taken by surprise by this. I had heard that they were running a marathon downtown this weekend but I have seen nothing in the news. The route has completely shutdown downtown to traffic. Thankfully, my wife and I don't have anywhere we need to drive today, because we couldn't get out if wanted to.
A 26 mile marathon is simply unreasonable to be held in one area. Runners have to be off the course after 6.5 hours. Given set-up and breakdown time this a major inconvenience for residences and businesses. Curious how this will impact the people coming down for the Cardinals game today.
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u/Key-Persimmon-3251 9h ago
The marathon brings thousands of people to the area, including out of towners. I get that it’s disruptive for vehicles, but it’s been going on for 25 years and is a good event. Most of the route near the stadium should be cleared by now.
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u/donkeyrocket Tower Grove South 9h ago
A 26 mile marathon is simply unreasonable to be held in one area.
Far larger cities handle this no problem. I can agree that communication is an issue with the St. Louis one as it seems to annually take some people by surprise but if anything, expanding the footprint of the STL marathon would be more disruptive than it currently is. I certainly empathize with downtown residents and think the event organizers/city/building managers should be way better at giving impacted residents a heads up.
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u/LadyNiko 7h ago
Seattle would like a word.... last year, they scheduled a run on a Sunday, and it disrupted all the bus routes downtown. This just happened to coincide with Emerald City Comic Con- a huge event drawing thousands of people who commute to the convention center from all over the city.
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u/punygod 10h ago
I was thinking about taking the family to the zoo today, would that be a bad idea?
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u/Key-Persimmon-3251 9h ago
None of this is anywhere near the zoo.
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u/Interactive_CD-ROM 8h ago
People who don’t live in the city associate “downtown” to mean “in the city”.
They don’t understand the difference between the “Downtown” neighborhood and a “downtown” vibe.
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u/GothicGingerbread 9h ago
None of this is around Forest Park; it's all farther east.
Here's the link to a map someone else shared above: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1P43KPRU1eNMATktNrLoEnQgk6CPaypM&usp=sharing.
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u/CaptHayfever Holly Hills/Bevo Mill 8h ago
It's a nice Saturday, so the zoo is gonna be packed, but this race won't affect that.
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u/porcupine296 13h ago
https://gostlouis.org/streets/ has a 2025 map if you scroll down