How to Track and Watch the 2026 Richmond Marathon: New App, Start Times, Party Zones and a New Finish Line

The 49th Allianz Richmond Marathon starts at 7:00 a.m. sharp on Saturday, November 14, on Broad Street downtown, and the course closes at 2:00 p.m. All three races sold out. The organizer's race-week announcement counts 7,200 marathoners, 1,000 more than last year, plus 9,000 in the CarMax Richmond Half Marathon and 5,000 in the Capital One Richmond 8k, for 21,000 runners in all.

Three things are different this year for anyone holding a sign: a new tracking app, new start spots on Broad Street, and a finish line in a new spot at 5th and Byrd Streets. All times below are Eastern.

Track runners in the RaceRecord app

Sports Backers, which organizes the race, switched to RaceRecord as the official race day app for 2026, and Go Race Productions is the new official timer. The app is free on iPhone (iOS 15.2 or later) and Android, listed as Allianz Richmond Marathon. If you used a different app for Richmond in past years, download this one.

The runner tracking page gives spectators three steps: tap "Participants" at the bottom right, search your runner's name, and tap the heart next to it to save them. The tracker shows split times, current pace and an estimated finish, and you can opt into notifications as your runner moves along the course. The course map plots runners' positions, and a live leaderboard shows the top runners in each category. Without a phone app, the same event is on RaceRecord's website, with leaderboard and map tabs.

The organizer notes that times posted during the race are unofficial. It also lists backups the runner has to set up before the start: Garmin LiveTrack, live location sharing from an iPhone or Apple Watch, and Strava Beacon. Each depends on your runner carrying a phone, or for the Apple and Strava options, a watch with cellular service.

Start times and corrals

From the 2026 event schedule:

The marathon is a single mass start, with runners grouped by predicted finish time. Your runner's corral is printed on their bib. From the marathon page:

The half goes off in waves every two minutes from 7:15, with the last wave at 7:43, according to the FAQ.

The marathon allows seven hours, a 16:02 pace. Runners have to pass these cutoffs to keep course support: mile 7 by 9:05 a.m., mile 11 by 10:10, mile 16 by 11:30, mile 20 by 12:30 p.m. and mile 23 by 1:20.

The course

The marathon runs out Broad Street, turns onto Arthur Ashe Boulevard and Monument Avenue, and works through Grove Avenue and Cary Street Road to River Road. From there it follows Riverside Drive, Forest Hill Avenue and Semmes Avenue before coming back toward downtown on Belvidere Street. The last third goes up Arthur Ashe Boulevard past The Diamond, loops through Hermitage Road, Pope Avenue, Crestwood Road and Brook Road, and comes back in on Lombardy, Grace, 3rd and Franklin Streets before the turn onto 5th Street for the downhill finish. The course page says the route runs along and across the James River and calls it good for first-timers, with "some rolling hills."

The downhill finish survives the move. Race director Meghan Keogh said in the finish-line announcement that it is "slightly shorter" this year. To make room for the new finish, the marathon start moved to Broad between 3rd and 4th, and the half and 8k courses changed as well.

Where to watch

The race has three 12 On Your Side Party Zones on the marathon course, with music, noisemakers and signs. Mile markers below come from the 2026 music lineup, which also places bands at other points along the route. The party zone page has driving directions between them. Because of the closures, the organizer notes, those routes sometimes differ from the way you would normally go.

For timing, use the organizer's pace chart, which lists clock times at every mile for finishing times from 3:00 to 7:00. A 4:00 marathoner reaches mile 7 at about 8:04 a.m., mile 13 at about 8:59, mile 20 at about 10:03 and the finish at 11:00. A 3:30 runner is at mile 7 at about 7:56, mile 20 at about 9:40 and finishes at 10:30.

Two-spot plan for one runner: River Road at mile 6.8, then The Diamond at 19.7. A 4:00 runner gives you close to two hours between them. The organizer's directions connect the two by car, and its travel page says you can get "pretty much anywhere in 20 minutes" in Richmond. At The Diamond, park on the right-hand side of the road and don't try to drive across the course, or, as the directions put it, "you will get trapped by the runners."

The organizer also says it has "vehicle bridges" along the course, where traffic is let across during breaks in the field.

Watching the half

The CarMax Halfway Hype Zone returns to Bryan Park, with School of Rock, The Parrot Head Group, the Hermitage High School Marching Band and DJ Bob. Cheer squads and signs line nearly a mile and a half of the route through the park, and the organizer suggests the Bellevue Avenue entrance, where you can see runners on the way in and on the way out. Half marathoners take a new route along Hermitage Road and Princeton Road after leaving the park.

The finish and meeting up

The new finish is at Byrd and 5th Streets. After the chute, runners exit onto 7th Street and head to the riverfront, where a new meeting area on Tredegar has signs by last name in alphabetical order. Pick a letter with your runner before Saturday. The finish area map marks part of the zone as a restricted area with no spectators.

Checked bags are picked up in the parking lot of the American Civil War Museum, next to Brown's Island, so your runner may head there first. The CoStar Group Post Race Party on Brown's Island runs from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and the spectators page invites friends and family. The party map shows a live stream video board, a wheelchair-accessible ramp and an ID check for drink tickets.

The organizer's directions page warns that street closures block car access to the finish. Its parking page suggests one way around that: park in Manchester, around 10th and Semmes Streets, and walk across the Tyler Potterfield Pedestrian Bridge to the finish and the party. The same page lists garages near the start and finish and a free post-race shuttle from Tredegar and Brown's Island Way back to the start area, running on a loop from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Road closures and transit

The 2026 closure schedule starts early in the week. 5th Street between Bragg and Byrd closes at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, and several streets around the finish stay closed until 6:00 p.m. Saturday. On race morning, Broad Street from Belvidere to 11th closes from 4:00 to 10:00 a.m. Grace Street from 4th to North Allen Avenue is closed from 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and northbound Arthur Ashe Boulevard and Hermitage Road from 6:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. The organizer has preloaded its closures into Waze and warns that detours may route you onto toll roads.

GRTC buses are zero fare. GRTC had not posted race-day detours as of November 6, so check GRTC's alerts page the morning of the race.

Weather and race alerts

The organizer's travel page puts the November 14 average at 51°F, with a high of 62 and a low of 40. Race-day conditions are signaled with a color-coded flag system, the Event Alert System, shown in the start area and at every hydration station.

Results

Times in the app are unofficial during the race, and the organizer says official results go up once the event ends on Saturday night. Results from past editions are on the race's results page. We'll have the winners and links on our Richmond Marathon results page after the race.