Expo, schedule and race morning

Packet pickup

• Friday, October 2, 2026: 11:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. (the half marathon and 5K pages list a 10:00 a.m. open; confirm before arriving early)

• The expo is one day only. There is no Saturday expo and no full race-morning packet pickup at a single central location, so Friday is effectively your window unless you use the pre-dawn options below.
• Race-morning pickup exists but is split by distance and is very early: marathon runners pick up inside the St. George Recreation Center (285 South 400 East St) starting 3:30 a.m. Saturday; half marathon runners pick up at the Sandtown Park bus loading area (600 N Bluff St) starting 3:30 a.m. Get the wrong one and you are at the wrong end of town with buses leaving.
• Someone else can collect your packet, but they must bring your government-issued photo ID and your QR code. No ID or no QR code means no packet.
• Shirts are handed out at your registered size and no exchanges are made at packet pickup. Exchanges only open after the race at the Recreation Center starting 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
• Elite runners pick up at a separate elite booth and must show ID; personal water bottles can be dropped at that booth only until 5:00 p.m. Friday, three hours before the expo itself closes.
• The 5K runs at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Vernon Worthen Park, in the middle of expo hours. If you are doing the Desert Double, get through the expo before late afternoon.
• Transfer fee is $25 before September 1 and $50 through September 15; the person receiving the entry must complete their own registration by September 15. Deferral is $25 before September 1 and $50 through October 2.

August 2026

The published weekend schedule

2026 race weekend is Friday October 2 (expo and 5K) and Saturday October 3 (marathon and half marathon, both at 7:00 a.m.). The course is point-to-point and the start is reachable only by the official buses, which run 3:45-5:15 a.m. and load by assigned time, so the real planning constraint is being at the correct downtown loading site (Vernon Worthen Park for the marathon, Sandtown Park for the half) well before 5:15 a.m. Miss the last bus and there is no other way to the start. Times above come from the City of St. George official event pages checked August 2026; confirm the expo opening hour, which the city's own pages state inconsistently.

Getting there

Treat the race buses as the transport system, because there isn't another one. St. George has no rail and its public transit is thin and does not exist at the hour you need it; nothing scheduled runs early enough to get you to a 3:45 a.m. bus call. The whole day is designed around one movement: buses out of Vernon Worthen Park between about 3:45 and 5:15 a.m. (some race materials list loading from 3:30 to 5:20), a 7:00 a.m. start up in Central, and a finish back at the same park. Runners are given a departure slot and told to hold to it, so build your morning backwards from your assigned time, not from the gun. Getting yourself to the start by private car is a bad idea even where it is possible: SR-18 is under traffic control, and your car would end the day 26 miles from you.

• Bus loading: Vernon Worthen Park, 250 S 400 E. This is the single address that matters on race morning. Buses load from roughly 3:45 to 5:15 a.m. with assigned slots. Aim to be standing there 20 minutes before your slot; it is a desert October morning at altitude and it is cold, so bring a throwaway layer you are happy to lose at the start.
• Race-morning road closures. Downtown street closures start at 3 a.m. and are enforced by about 6 a.m., with things reopening between 1 and 2 p.m. In a typical year, Diagonal Street from 630 West to Bluff Street closes 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., with limited two-way access held open on the north shoulder between 630 West and 500 North, and 700 North closes entirely from 3 to 7 a.m. for bus loading and the half. Confirm the current year's list before you drive anywhere.
• Closures that start days early. This is the one that catches people arriving Friday. 300 South between 300 West and 400 East shuts at 7 a.m. on the Thursday for finish-line construction; on the Friday, 300 South from 200 East to 300 East and 300 East from 200 South to 400 South drop to local traffic only at 7 a.m., and 400 East from 100 South to 300 South closes at 6 p.m. If your hotel is inside that box, tell the front desk when you are arriving and ask which approach is still open.
• Driving across town during the race. St. George police advice is blunt: to move east-west, go as far south as 700 South or Riverside Drive, because everything closer to downtown clogs. Assume any route through the middle of town between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. will cost you far more time than the detour.
• Parking. Downtown surface lots are the option, and there aren't many of them relative to an 8,000-runner field. Park outside the closure ring rather than inside it: a car left within the closed streets is stuck until the roads reopen in the early afternoon, which is exactly when you want to be leaving. If you are staying downtown, leave the car at the hotel entirely.
• Getting back to your room after the finish. You finish at Vernon Worthen Park, walk through the chute for your medal and food, and meet people on the grass areas set aside for family. From there it is on you: there is no published shuttle back to hotels, and the surrounding streets are closed to traffic until roughly 1 p.m., so a car or rideshare cannot pull up to the park. Plan for a walk of several blocks to whatever meeting point you agreed on, and pick that point in advance, on the south or east side, outside the closures. This is the strongest argument for a downtown room.
• Hotel shuttles. Several St. George hotels have historically laid on their own race-morning shuttle to bus loading and pushed breakfast back to 3 a.m. for marathon weekend. It is not universal and it is not a race service, so confirm it directly with the property when you book rather than assuming it.
• Dinner the night before. The Pasta Factory in Ancestor Square, at the corner of St. George Blvd and Main, is the sensible pre-race meal and it is a short walk from downtown hotels and from Vernon Worthen Park. You build the plate yourself, choosing the pasta (house-made linguine and fettuccine among them), the sauce and the toppings, which is exactly the control you want the night before a marathon. Book or go early: it is a small downtown and every runner in town has the same idea.

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.

• Main Street Plaza Public Parking11 minute modeled walk to finish

Published entry tiers

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