We are delighted you have chosen to participate in our event — our 10 miler is one of the top road races in the world and our 5K Run-Walk is designed to provide our gentle runners and walkers with an opportunity to participate as well. We are excited about our new staging area on the Washington Monument Grounds and our new course which features more cherry trees than ever before.

On Saturday, the race Expo takes place at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA. Sunday’s events take place on the Washington Monument Grounds. The staging area is nearest the corner of 15^th and Constitution Aves., NW. The start and finish are at 15^th St. and Jefferson Dr.

Strict Enforcement of 2 hour and 20 Minute Time Limit

We are privileged to be able to use the Washington Monument Grounds on the National Mall, perhaps the highest-visibility venue in the world, during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, its busiest time of the year. Our part of the arrangement under which we obtained our permit is that all our runners will be off the course by 10:30 a.m.  This means we will require any runner who is not maintaining a 14-minute per mile pace to leave the course at the five-mile mark, which is located adjacent to the finish line area. We will place barricades across the roadway and entrants will not be allowed to continue. Runners who are under a 14-minute-per mile pace at half way but slow down during the second half of the race will be required to leave the course and board one of our sweep vehicles. The 10-mile race is clearly a “run” and not a walk. Walkers are welcome in our 5k Run-Walk. If you have entered the 10 mile and are uncertain as to whether you can maintain a sub 14-minute per mile pace, we will switch you over to the 5k Run-Walk. Please contact Drew Woodrich at office@runwashington.com so we can make the switch. All 5k Run-Walk participants receive the same amenities as the 10-milers.

Easy Access to Race Site by Metro and Earlier Metro Opening

Our new staging area is only ¼ mile from the Smithsonian Metro stop (Orange and Blue lines). Metro will open at 5 a.m. this year (instead of 6 a.m. as in the past) in order to allow everyone more time to get to the race site using Metro. We will no longer be running shuttle buses from Metro stops to the race site, but we will continue shuttle service between the Crystal Gateway Marriott and the race site. We encourage everyone to use Metro. For those who might wish to take a short warm-up, you can take the Red Line to the Metro Center stop (.9 of a mile to the start), the Green, Yellow, Orange and Blue lines to the L’Enfant Plaza stop (.8 of a mile to the start) or the Yellow and Green lines to the Archives/Navy Memorial stop (about .9 of a mile from the start).

Wave Start

The 10 mile will use a wave start once again this year. Runners will be assigned to a color-coded starting corral based on previous race times. Colors on bib numbers will match starting corrals. After our elite, seeded, and sub-seeded runners, there will be five additional waves of approximately 2,500-3,000 runners each. The waves will start at two-and-one-half-minute intervals. This should ease crowding on the course. Runners outside the top 25 males and females will be scored on net times. The waves are as follows:

Yellow corral - The yellow corral will be broken into four sections. Section A is for Elite runners with bib numbers from 1-60, Section B is for Seeded runners with bib numbers 61-400, and Section C is for Sub-Seeded runners with numbers 401-2000. All three sections will start at the same time.

Red corral - Runners with bib numbers 2001-5,000 are in the second wave

Blue corral – Runners with bib numbers 5001-9000 are in the third wave

Orange corral – Runners with bib numbers 9001-13,000 are in the fourth wave

Green corral - Runners with bib numbers 13,001-16,000 are in the fifth wave

Purple corral - Runners with bib numbers 16,001-19,500 are in the sixth wave

Please cooperate with race officials by lining up in the proper corral. If you are running with friends or family members who are in different corrals, you may line up in the slowest corral of any member of the group.

Revised Timeline

To accommodate the increased size of the field, the main race will start at 7:50 a.m., five minutes earlier than last year. Here is the revised timeline.

  7:40 a.m. - Advance start for elite women. This start will be for approximately 30 of our elite and seeded women. This will enable us to showcase the elite women’s competition in a manner that is not possible in a “mixed” race.

  7:49 a.m. – Wheelchair competitors (push-rim only)

  7:50 a.m. - Elite men and first wave start for men and women (additional waves will depart at approximately 2-1/2 minute intervals)

  8:03 a.m  - Final wave starts

  8:15 a.m. - 1 Kilometer Kids Run. This will start on the Washington Monument Grounds.

  8:40 a.m. - 5K Run-Walk start. This will start at on 15^th St. (Raoul Wallenberg Pl.) south of Independence Ave.  The staging area will be located just north of Independence Ave. in the block bounded by 15^th St., Jefferson Dr., 14^th St., and Independence Ave., SW.