Expo, schedule and race morning

Packet pickup

• Thursday, November 5, 2026: 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET
• Friday, November 6, 2026: 11:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET

• Pickup is mandatory at the expo: per the FAQ, all packets except a purchased Race Day Will Call must be collected Thursday or Friday. There is no free race-morning pickup.
• Race Day Packet Will Call is a paid add-on bought during registration, and it is limited. If you did not buy it at registration, Thursday/Friday are your only windows.
• Thursday is only a 3-hour window (4-7 p.m.), so a Thursday-evening flight arrival is tight; Friday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. is the real cushion.
• Proxy pickup is allowed, but the proxy must present your official check-in pass showing your ASSIGNED BIB NUMBER plus a copy of your government-issued photo ID. Digital copies are accepted.
• The official clear plastic gear-check bag is handed out at the expo during Thursday/Friday packet pickup. It is the ONLY bag accepted at gear check, so skipping the expo means no gear check. Unattended bags are removed by security; unclaimed gear is donated.
• Wave assignment is set from the estimated finish time given at registration. You may move back to a slower wave but will not be allowed to move up to a faster wave on race day, so a wave fix is not something the expo can solve upward.

August 2026

The published weekend schedule

Race day is Saturday, November 7, 2026, so the whole weekend runs Thursday-Saturday: the expo closes Friday at 8 p.m. and does not reopen. Sourced from monumentalmarathon.com's race weekend schedule page and 2026 FAQ, checked August 2026. Note that general registration for all in-person distances is listed as sold out with only limited charity entries remaining.

Getting there

Two hard facts shape race morning: the race starts at 8 a.m. and the course stays open until 3:30 p.m. (WTHR reporting surfaced in search; I did not open that page directly), and downtown restrictions run roughly 7:50 a.m.-10 a.m. with north-of-downtown restrictions about 8 a.m.-11:15 a.m., a stretch of North Capitol Avenue restricted until 5:30 p.m. (same search-summary source, so treat the clock as indicative rather than official). WRTV confirms that almost all restrictions lift by 3:30 p.m. and that the finish-line area on Washington Street reopens at 5:30 p.m. The practical read: a 5:45 a.m. wake-up beats the closures, an 7:15 a.m. drive does not. The Julia M. Carson Transit Center is the hub if you are coming in by bus, but I could not confirm IndyGo's Saturday first-departure times or race-day detours from any page I fetched, so do not assume a bus is running early enough without checking IndyGo directly.

• Can a car reach the hotels?. Before Friday at 5 p.m., yes. WRTV reports Washington Street between Capitol Avenue and West Street closes at 5 p.m. Friday, and the wider grid goes down Saturday morning. Park in a garage Friday afternoon and leave the car until at least 3:30 p.m. Saturday, when WRTV says almost all restrictions lift. The race itself publishes no garage list and points to Visit Indy's parking guide for hours.
• Towing. Not sourced. The race's own road-closure document is a PDF, which was out of scope for this pass, and the HTML spectator page says nothing about no-parking zones or towing. Assume signed race-route no-parking exists and verify against the official closure map before leaving a car on Meridian, College, Washington Boulevard, Mass Ave or Fall Creek Parkway overnight.
• Julia M. Carson Transit Center. The downtown hub for IndyGo service and the natural arrival point if you are not driving. I could not verify Saturday first-departure times or race-morning detours from a fetched page, so confirm with IndyGo that a bus reaches downtown before roughly 6:45 a.m. If it does not, a hotel inside the closure ring stops being a preference and becomes the plan.
• What 5:45 a.m. actually looks like. Downtown restrictions have not started yet at that hour (the reported window begins around 7:50 a.m.), so the streets are open, dark and quiet, and the walk from the Circle or the Statehouse to West Street is short and uncomplicated. Early November in Indianapolis means cold and often damp at that hour: general knowledge, not from a fetched page. The advantage of the downtown cluster is that you can stay in the room until close to gun time instead of standing around.
• Getting back to the room after finishing. You finish on Washington Street and you walk. The finish-line area does not reopen to traffic until 5:30 p.m. Saturday per WRTV, so there is no vehicle pickup at the line and a rideshare will meet you outside the perimeter, not at it. This is the single strongest argument for booking inside the Statehouse/Monument Circle cluster: the post-marathon walk is measured in blocks rather than in a cold half-mile hike to a car you cannot move until mid-afternoon.
• Spectator logistics for anyone with you. The race's spectator page points family to Riverside Park at mile 20, routed from the race site via I-65 North, and recommends Pacers Bike Share for following the course along the city's bike trail system. That is the race's own advice, and it is a workable way for a partner to see you twice without fighting the closure grid.
• Dinner the night before. Iaria's Italian Restaurant, a long-standing family Italian room on South College Avenue just east of downtown, is the classic pre-race carb dinner here: simple pasta, early seating, walkable-ish from the core. Stated plainly: this pick is general knowledge, not from any page I fetched for this dossier. Book it, because marathon weekend fills downtown restaurants.

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.

• Indiana Government Center Parking Facility3 minute modeled walk to start
• World of Wonders Garage7 minute modeled walk to start
• Rolls-Royce Employee and Visitor Parking10 minute modeled walk to start
• Senate Avenue Parking Facility10 minute modeled walk to start
• Union Station Parking Garage10 minute modeled walk to start
• Riverwalk Parking Garage - XP11 minute modeled walk to start
• Sport Complex Parking Garage - XD12 minute modeled walk to start
• City Park13 minute modeled walk to start
• Cityway North Car Park14 minute modeled walk to start
• Elanco Parking Garage14 minute modeled walk to start

Published entry tiers

Checked 2026-08-27; fees and tiers can change.