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The city behind the course

A Philadelphia weekend

Start with the places the marathon actually passes.

The route's local signatures

Meet the architecture and landscape along the course. Use these places to get to know the city before deciding how to spend your time on your feet.

Comcast Technology Center

Near mile 0.4

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 339 meters.

Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul

Near mile 0.4

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 31 meters.

Comcast Center

Near mile 0.6

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 297 meters.

One Liberty Place

Near mile 0.7

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 264 meters.

Independence Hall

Near mile 5.2

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 41 meters.

Philadelphia City Hall

Near mile 5.9

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 167 meters.

Two Liberty Place

Near mile 6.0

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 258 meters.

Memorial Hall (Please Touch Museum)

Near mile 11.4

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 30 meters.

A weekend rhythm that protects race day

  1. Arrival. Base your first walk on the real start and finish geometry, then inspect the final approach in the route map.
  2. Packet pickup. Go to Philadelphia Marathon Weekend Health & Fitness Expo, Pennsylvania Convention Center - Hall F inside its published window; save the final hours offline.
  3. The day before. Choose one course landmark, keep the outing short, and finish your feet-up time early.
  4. Race day. Follow the transportation plan, not ordinary weekend traffic directions.
  5. After the finish. Let the finish-area access plan decide the meal and meetup, especially on a point-to-point course.

Where the weekend should be based

Everything that matters sits on one axis: the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, running northwest from City Hall to the Art Museum steps. The expo is at the bottom of it (12th and Arch), the start and finish are at the top of it (22nd Street and Eakins Oval). Pick your hotel by where you want to be at 5:45 a.m. on a cold Sunday, because the whole Parkway between 22nd Street and Eakins Oval is closed to cars, no traffic gets into Center City from 4:00 a.m., and anything parked on the route gets towed starting at 1:00 a.m. Walking is the only reliable way in.

Compare the actual hotel geometry →

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 November 18-26 across 2016-2025 at the start line. Schedule, prices and expo hours were checked in August 2026 and are the fields most likely to move: confirm them on www.philadelphiamarathon.com before you book anything. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it fast.