Expo, schedule and race morning

Packet pickup

• Wednesday, October 21, 2026: Opening Ceremony 9:30 to 10:00 a.m.; expo and packet pickup 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• Thursday, October 22, 2026: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• Friday, October 23, 2026: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• Saturday, October 24, 2026: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

• Packet pickup is mandatory and there is no race-morning option. MCM states flatly that packet pickup is not available on event morning. The only carve-out is a purchasable Race Day Packet Pick-Up product, and MCM says only that buyers will be notified. Do not plan around it.
• This is the single biggest logistics trap of the weekend: the expo is in downtown DC at Judiciary Square, not in Arlington near the start or the finish. If you are based in Rosslyn or Crystal City you have to make a dedicated trip across the river to collect a bib.
• Pickup is by assigned time slot. You select your time through your race bib confirmation email, and MCM says the same scheduling system governs entry to the expo itself. Book the slot as soon as the confirmation email lands.
• Bring two things: your e-Card, emailed to all participants in the weeks before the event, and a photo ID. The e-Card is the scannable credential and the photo ID is checked against it.
• Someone else can collect for you. The proxy must present a hard or digital copy of your completed e-Card, a copy of your photo ID, and their own ID. Know your shirt size before sending them, because sizes are handed out at the counter.
• Security screening: all runners are screened on entering the Building Museum. Budget time for a line and travel light. A separate screening applies at the start and finish areas on race morning.
• There are no vendor booths this year. MCM says space in the National Building Museum is limited and no vendor booth spaces are available, so treat this as a pickup errand rather than a shopping expo.
• Getting there: the museum is directly across F Street NW from the Judiciary Square station on the Red Line. Alternatively take Yellow, Green or Red to Gallery Place-Chinatown and walk two blocks east.
• Your bib carries three things to handle before race morning: the timing chip is on the reverse and must stay attached, the emergency medical and contact form on the back must be filled in, and the UPS baggage sticker is stuck to the back of the bib. Peel that sticker off and put it on the clear plastic bag from your packet, because it tells you which UPS truck is yours.
• MCM 8K runners get a shorter window than marathoners: 8K packet pickup is only October 22 and 23, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

August 2026

The published weekend schedule

Times and venues are from marinemarathon.com as of August 2026. Several Saturday items are still listed by MCM as TBD, and the road closure page has not yet been updated from 2025. Note the pace requirement: 14 minutes per mile, and you must make the three gauntlets. Straggler buses follow a Rear Pace vehicle and sweep runners who fall off it.

Getting there

Metro is the answer to nearly every MCM transport question, and MCM has arranged for it to open at 5:00 a.m. on race morning, early enough to get you from any sensible base to Runners Village well before the 7:20 a.m. start. Two details catch people out. First, the station that sounds perfect for the start, Arlington Cemetery, does not open until 8:30 a.m. on event morning: it is a spectator station for mile 25, not a runner station. Use Pentagon or Pentagon City instead. Second, the whole start and finish corridor closes in the small hours, roughly 3:00 to 3:30 a.m. from Rosslyn down past the Pentagon, so any plan involving a car after about 3 a.m. is already dead.

• Metro opening time on race day. MCM states in two places that Metro opens at 5:00 a.m. on event morning, giving well over two hours of buffer before the 7:20 a.m. runner start. WMATA's own operating-hours page would not load, so treat the 5:00 a.m. as sourced from MCM and verify closer to the date.
• Stations that matter. Pentagon on Yellow or Blue and Pentagon City are the runner stations for Runners Village and the start. Rosslyn on Blue, Orange and Silver is the finish station. Arlington Cemetery on Blue opens at 8:30 a.m. and is a short walk to mile 25. For spectators: Smithsonian covers miles 17 to 20 on the National Mall, Crystal City covers miles 22 to 23, and L'Enfant Plaza is the station for the Beat the Bridge point at mile 20. Judiciary Square on Red is the expo station.
• MCM shuttles. Two separate services, both anchored on 23rd Street and Crystal Drive. Start shuttles run to Runners Village in the North Pentagon lot between 4:30 and 6:30 a.m. Finish shuttles board in the Finish Festival at Oak Street and Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn and return to 23rd and Crystal Drive, running 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. That 10:00 a.m. start is the catch: finish before then and you are walking to Rosslyn Metro instead.
• Parking and drop-off. MCM offers free parking in the underground lots at 23rd and Crystal Drive for both the marathon and the Kids Run, then use the shuttle. If someone is driving you to the start, the only sanctioned drop point is Kiss and Run at the corner of Army Navy Drive and Fern Street, from which you walk into the North Pentagon parking lot.
• Road closures. MCM's published closure list has not been reissued for 2026 and still carries the 2025 dates, so use this as the pattern, not the final word. Route 110 from I-66 to US 1 was closed 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Nearly all of downtown Rosslyn was closed 3:00 a.m. to somewhere between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. The Marine Corps War Memorial access road was closed 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. In DC, the National Mall streets closed 3:45 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and the Georgetown block including the Francis Scott Key Bridge, M Street NW, Canal Road and the Whitehurst Freeway closed 5:30 a.m. to between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. The course officially closes at 3:05 p.m.
• Reuniting after the finish. Runners and supporters meet in the Family Link Up area inside the Finish Festival in Rosslyn, organized alphabetically. Pick the first letter of your last name in advance: each letter is marked by a 13-foot yellow tower. The medical information tent is at Lynn Street and Fairfax Drive, and MCM info tents are on the Route 50 overpass in Rosslyn and in Runners Village.
• Dinner the night before. Sfoglina Rosslyn, 1100 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington. It is a handmade-pasta house on the same Wilson Blvd stretch that becomes the Finish Festival the next morning, so from a Rosslyn hotel you eat, walk back, and never touch a car. It books out, so reserve well ahead. Its own site and third-party listings disagree on whether Saturday service starts at 11:30 a.m. or 5:00 p.m., so confirm when you book. Saturday night is also your last chance to leave a car somewhere it will not be trapped by a 3:00 a.m. closure, so check your hotel's garage situation.

Published entry tiers

Checked 2026-08-26; fees and tiers can change.