St. Jude Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon & 1/2 Marathon

Course highlights

Runners start their race in the shadow of Seattle’s famed Space Needle and finish next to the home offices of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Marathon & Half Marathon, From the Space Needle and downtown’s Seattle Center, the race unfolds first with a long stretch down 5th Avenue, which takes runners through the heart of downtown and past several of its skyscrapers and City Hall. Next, the course turns left and heads east along Dearborn Street, and then turns again onto Rainier Avenue for a long stretch that heads south into more residential areas, like Seattle’s Mount Baker and Columbia City neighborhoods. Here, the course flattens out in a big way for several miles, and runners don’t hit another significant hill again until around mile 8, when they make the turn onto I-90. Before that, runners get to enjoy about a mile and half along the shoreline of Lake Washington as they run north on Lake Washington Boulevard, including stretches past Mount Baker Park and Colman Park. When they turn onto I-90, they begin a stretch that takes them through the I-90 Express tunnel for nearly a mile.