Dear Baltimore Running Festival runners, volunteers, charity partners, fans, sponsors and supporters: The Orioles' tremendous post season performance has certainly created a lot of excitement in Baltimore. This town has rallied around the team, just like they do for our runners on race day. With the Orioles advancing to the American League Championship Series (ALCS) and serving as the home team, it's vital for us to communicate how the ALCS schedule may impact this year's Baltimore Running Festival. After meeting with the Baltimore City Police Department, Maryland Stadium Authority, and numerous city and state agencies that help plan our event, it was determined all race start times must be moved up one hour, regardless of the outcome of any games, in order to ensure all public safety personnel can be deployed in an organized fashion. Marathon and leg 1 of the team relay will start at 7 am, ShopRite 5K will start at 7:20 am, the Transamerica Kids Fun Run will start at 8:20 am and the CareFirst Half Marathon will start at 8:45 am. Race start locations remain the same. This race start time decision is final, regardless of how the ALCS plays out. We also encourage runners to attend Thursday's Expo in order to pickup their race bibs and shirts. If the ALCS is decided in five games or less, our routes and Expo will not be impacted at all. However if and only if the ALCS goes at least six games, we will all need to make preparations for contingency planning and move forward with "Plan B" for race day and Day 2 of the expo (Friday, the 17). We have done a tremendous amount of planning to deliver the best race day experience possible for our entire field in this scenario. Please understand we had to make some tough decisions based on the potential lack of availability of Camden Yards and its surrounding parking lots for the setting up of our finish line configuration on Friday, October 17.We will have to make all of the following adjustments to how we have done things in previous years if the ALCS reaches game 6, forcing us to deploy "Plan B": Plan B, Adjustment #1: The finish line will also close after six (6) hours (1 pm). Any runners remaining on the course will be asked to move to the sidewalk. We will keep our finish line arch and timing mats up as long as possible. Plan B, Adjustment #2: The finish stretch for all distances can not go thru Camden Yards and will have to be re-routed down the Russell Street access road (just passed Hamburg Street). Our Runners Only Compound and Maryland Live! Casino Celebration Village will be relocated to West Ostend Street & Lot O. Plan B, Adjustment #3: We will not be able to provide any parking or shuttle service on Friday, October 17 for the Expo. We encourage all that can to come to the Expo on Thursday. We will lift our restriction of picking a packet for only one other runner and extend the expo hours on Thursday to 9pm. If Friday is your only option for the Expo, we encourage you to come in the morning and to take Light Rail. More details about Expo adjustments will be forthcoming. Further adjustments may need to be made based on the major league baseball playoff game times for games six and seven, which have not been announced yet. Please check our event website (thebaltimoremarathon.com) and social media accounts as the event draws closer. The Corrigan Sports Enterprises staff is committed 1,000 % to making your race day great. We know many of you have trained for months with certain expectations of our race day setup. We assure you we have done everything in our control to maintain a great experience for you under these unprecedented circumstances. The Baltimore Running Festival has become a part of the Charm City fabric in large part because of the dedication, loyalty, commitment and passion demonstrated by our runners since the event's inception in 2001. You motivate us to overcome obstacles, just like you have to in your lives in order to touch your toes on that start line on race day. If "We Run As One" - one field, one city, one team - we will all achieve greatness on October 18th! Regards, Lee Corrigan President, Corrigan Sports Enterprises Event Director |