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A Cleveland weekend

The good news about this course is that it runs through most of the things you would want to see anyway.

Everything below is on or beside the route. That is not a coincidence: the course was drawn to show the city off, and it works. Mile numbers are where you will run past each one.

West Side Market

Ohio City, a few blocks west of mile 11.4

1912, and still the reason people cross the river. The clock tower rises just west of the Lorain Avenue turn. Go Saturday morning, not Sunday: it is closed on Sundays.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Lakefront, mile 4.6

The I. M. Pei pyramid you run past at mile 4.6. Saturday afternoon after the expo is the natural slot, and it is a seven minute walk from the convention center.

Great Lakes Science Center

Lakefront, mile 4.6

Next door to the Rock Hall, with the Apollo command module and a genuinely good NASA collection. The better call if you are travelling with kids.

Edgewater Park

Miles 17 and 22.7

Beach, bluff, the script CLEVELAND sign, and the skyline view in the photo at the top of this page. Free, and the single best hour you can spend in this city.

Playhouse Square

Euclid Avenue, mile 1.5

The largest performing arts center in the country outside Lincoln Center, and the outdoor chandelier you run under in mile 2. Saturday night, if your race is Sunday, is a questionable but memorable decision.

Tremont

Miles 9 through 11

Church spires, brick, and more good restaurants per block than anywhere else in Cleveland. Book Saturday dinner here and you will have already seen the street you eat on from the course map.

The Flats East Bank

Mile 5.8

Riverfront boardwalk at the bottom of the hill you run down at mile 5.6. Loud on a Saturday night, which is either the point or the problem.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

20 miles south

If you drove and you have Monday, the Towpath Trail runs flat and shaded for as far as your legs will take it, which on the day after a marathon is about two miles.

The West Side Market clock tower in Ohio City. The course turns onto Lorain right underneath it at mile 11.4.
The West Side Market clock tower in Ohio City. The course turns onto Lorain right underneath it at mile 11.4. Photo: Erik Drost (CC BY 2.0).

A weekend that actually fits

  1. Friday afternoon. Land, check in downtown, walk to the expo at the convention center, pick up your bib. Walk out the north door and look at the start line so it is not new on Sunday.
  2. Friday evening. Ohio City or Tremont for dinner. Both are on the course, both are ten minutes from downtown, and neither requires a car if you do not want one.
  3. Saturday morning. West Side Market, which is closed Sunday, then a very easy shakeout. If you are running the Saturday 5K or 10K, that goes here instead.
  4. Saturday afternoon. Rock Hall or the Science Center on the lakefront, both a short walk, both indoors, both let you sit down.
  5. Saturday evening. Eat early, downtown, and stay off Euclid Avenue.
  6. Sunday. Run. Then the beer garden on Mall B, which is outside your hotel.
  7. Monday, if you have it. Edgewater Park for the view you were too tired to appreciate at mile 17, or the Towpath in Cuyahoga Valley for a two mile shuffle.
Professor Avenue in Tremont, mile 10. Brick, porches, and the loudest four blocks of the first half.
Professor Avenue in Tremont, mile 10. Brick, porches, and the loudest four blocks of the first half. Public domain.

Course geometry provenance is stated beside the player; elevation profiles always use the same route loaded there. City geometry is OpenStreetMap, ODbL. Aerial imagery is from USGS and USDA; other images carry their own source credits. Weather figures use Open-Meteo reanalysis for May 12-20 across 2016-2025 at the start line. Schedule, prices and expo hours were checked in September 2026 and are the fields most likely to move: confirm them on www.clevelandmarathon.com before you book anything. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it fast.