Expo, schedule and race morning

Packet pickup

• Saturday, October 3, 2026: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

• One day only. There is no Friday expo session, so the entire pickup window for most runners is a single eight-hour block the day before the race.
• The race states flatly that there is no packet pickup on race morning. If you land in Portland Sunday morning, you do not run.
• The same information page also says packets may be collected race day between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM at the Kids Run start line. Both statements sit on the official info page. Read together the 10-11 AM window is almost certainly for Kids Run participants, whose event starts at 11:30 AM, not a backdoor for marathoners. Do not plan around it; confirm with the race if you truly cannot make Saturday.
• Photo ID is required at the expo to collect a bib.
• A proxy can collect for you, but must carry a digital or paper copy of your ID plus a written note from you authorizing the pickup.
• The expo sits across the Willamette from the start. The convention center is on NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd; the start and finish are at 1000 SW Naito Parkway downtown. It is not a walk out of your hotel lobby, unlike the start itself.
• The race recommends public transit to the expo because of I-5 southbound lane closures that weekend.
• Packets can be mailed for an extra fee, chosen at registration or added afterward. No cutoff date is published, so add it early rather than assuming it stays available.
• A local bib pickup runs at Foot Traffic Northeast on Friday, September 26, for an additional $15. That is eight days before the race, not race week, so it only helps locals or people already in town.
• Coach Paul Carmona gives course presentations at the expo at 12:30 PM and 3:30 PM. If you want one, that anchors your expo timing.

August 2026

The published weekend schedule

Race day is Sunday, October 4, 2026; expo day is Saturday, October 3. All three road races start and finish at 1000 SW Naito Parkway, with the start line on SW Salmon St. The 6:45 AM clearance of Naito Parkway is worth treating as your real arrival deadline rather than the 7:00 or 7:15 gun. Separately, transfers between distances and deferrals both close September 27, 2026, and the fee steps up on a published ladder (April 29, July 22, September 2, September 27), so a late decision to drop from the marathon to the half costs more and becomes impossible a week before race day. Every item above comes from the official race site's information, register, and transfer/defer pages as they read in late August 2026; the site's own contradiction about race-morning pickup is recorded rather than resolved.

Getting there

The race asks runners to use MAX light rail, the Portland Streetcar or Biketown instead of driving, and on a Sunday MAX is early enough to make that real: at Pioneer Square, Sunday trains begin around 3:22 a.m. and run at roughly 30-minute headways through 4:01, 4:33, 5:01, 5:30, 6:00 and 6:30 a.m., so a 6:00 a.m. train still lands you well inside the 6:30 arrival deadline. The four stops below are all a short flat walk from the Salmon Street corrals, and all four sit inside the same downtown grid that closes to cars, which is exactly why they work when driving does not. Buses are the softer part of the plan: in past years TriMet detoured most downtown lines through the race window and left MAX largely intact, but I could not verify a 2026 alert, so check trimet.org for detours the week of the race rather than trusting a stop you used on a previous visit. The single most useful habit on race morning is to approach the start from the south or west and to expect that anyone crossing north through Broadway or SW 4th is blocked until 7:45 to 8:00 a.m.

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.

• Metropolitan Garage2 minute modeled walk to start
• Pioneer Tower2 minute modeled walk to start
• SmartPark2 minute modeled walk to start
• City Center Parking3 minute modeled walk to start
• PMC3 minute modeled walk to start
• Auditorium Park4 minute modeled walk to start
• Alder Street Garage5 minute modeled walk to start
• Southpark Garage5 minute modeled walk to start
• City Center Parking6 minute modeled walk to start
• Crown Plaza Parking6 minute modeled walk to start

Published entry tiers

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