Expo, schedule and race morning

Packet pickup

• Thursday, April 22, 2027: 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM
• Friday, April 23, 2027: 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM

• NO PACKET PICKUP ON RACE DAY. The site states this in capitals. Two windows only, Thursday evening and Friday, so a Friday-night arrival for a Saturday marathon does not work unless you land before 8:00 PM Friday.
• Contradiction on the race's own expo page: it says all runners must personally pick up their own packets, and also says a family member or friend may collect your packet if they have your registration QR code. Both readings are on the same page. Bring your own QR code and assume proxy pickup may be questioned.
• What to bring: the RunSignUp registration QR code, printed or on your phone. If you never got the QR email, go to the Runners' Services table at the expo.
• Corral assignment corrections are handled at Runners' Services at the expo, not on race morning.
• The expo is NOT downtown. Freedom Hall / Kentucky Exposition Center sits by the airport and fairgrounds, several miles from the Main Street start line and the downtown hotel cluster. Budget a round trip separate from anything downtown. Parking is in the lot near Freedom Hall via the Gate 1 entrance.
• Trap for the Friday 5K: the 5K starts at 7:00 PM Friday at Waterfront Park downtown, while the expo runs until 8:00 PM Friday out at the Exposition Center. You must collect the 5K bib and shirt before heading downtown, not after.
• The 5K page says detailed pickup hours are emailed to registered participants in early spring, so confirm against that email.

August 2026

The published weekend schedule

Dates and times are the 2027 edition as published on derbyfestivalmarathon.com and the event's RunSignUp page, checked August 2026. Marathon, miniMarathon and relay all go off together at 7:00 AM Saturday from Main Street; corrals are lettered by previous or estimated finish time, faster at the front. Start and finish are not the same spot (start Main Street, finish Preston and Witherspoon). Running both the Friday 5K and either Saturday race earns the KDF Race Challenge medal, which means committing to a Thursday or early-Friday expo trip. The wider Kentucky Derby Festival runs alongside race weekend, so downtown road and event closures are separate from the race's own.

Getting there

Assume you are walking. TARC is the local bus system and its Downtown Transfer Center is the hub, but I could not confirm Saturday first-bus times: the routes-and-schedules page returned a 404 and the homepage lists no service hours, so I cannot tell you anything runs before a 7 a.m. start. Meanwhile the same street grid the buses use downtown is closed from 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. Saturday, which means whatever normally serves Main, Market, Broadway and Muhammad Ali is detoured on race morning anyway. The plan that actually works: sleep within walking distance, walk to the start, and walk back from the finish.

• Both races start at 7 a.m. Louisville media coverage of the 2026 closures reports a 7 a.m. start for both the marathon and the miniMarathon, on Main Street near Louisville Slugger Field, with the finish near the Great Lawn at Waterfront Park. Start and finish are effectively the same neighborhood, so one walk out and one walk back.
• Getting back to the room after finishing. The finish at Waterfront Park is inside the closure box, so there is no rideshare pickup at the line and no car retrieval until the roads reopen at 4 p.m. Saturday. From the Great Lawn, the Galt House at 4th and Main is a four-block walk and the 2nd-through-6th Street hotels are similar. If you are staying outside downtown, you will be walking south or west out of the cordon to meet a car, which is a real consideration on legs that just ran 26.2.
• The closure timeline in one line. Preston Street (Main to River Road) closes 8 a.m. Friday; River Road (Preston to Witherspoon) and the route-wide no-parking start at 10 p.m. Friday; Main (Shelby to Brook), Hancock, Franklin, Clay, River Road (Witherspoon to Edith Lane) and Witherspoon close at 4 a.m. Saturday; 3rd, Market, 18th/19th/20th, Muhammad Ali, Madison, Chestnut, Broadway, Park, Magnolia, Central, Taylor, Southern Parkway, Iroquois Park Road and an I-264 eastbound ramp close at 6 a.m. Everything reopens after 4 p.m. Saturday, and all closures carry no parking on both sides.
• Car access to hotels. Hotels west and south of the box (the 2nd-6th Street cluster, Fourth Street Live) remain reachable by car Saturday because the closures run along Main, River Road and the north-south race corridor rather than sealing the whole CBD. Anything fronting Main Street between Shelby and Brook, or River Road, is unreachable by vehicle from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. Check in Friday, before the 8 a.m. Preston Street closure if you can, and certainly before 10 p.m.
• Dinner the night before. Vincenzo's Italian Restaurant at 5th and Market is the pick: white-tablecloth Italian, plenty of pasta, and a short flat walk from the Galt House and the Fourth Street hotels, so you are not driving anywhere on Friday night after the closures start going up. This recommendation is from general knowledge, not from any page fetched for this research, so confirm hours and a reservation directly.

Parking near the course endpoints

These are mapped garages near the course, not a promise of race-day access. Check closures and pre-booking rules with the organizer.

• 1st & Main Garage4 minute modeled walk to start
• Jefferson Centre Garage7 minute modeled walk to start
• Actors Theatre Parking Garage8 minute modeled walk to start
• Jewish Hospital Employee Parking Garage8 minute modeled walk to start
• Jewish Hospital Visitor and Physician Parking Garage9 minute modeled walk to start
• Norton Children's Hospital Parking Garage10 minute modeled walk to start
• Parking Garage and Institutional Services Building10 minute modeled walk to start
• Starks Center Parking11 minute modeled walk to start
• YCMA Parking Lot11 minute modeled walk to start
• Fourth Street Live Garage13 minute modeled walk to start