The Seattle Marathon Won't Cross the Magnolia Bridge This Year. Here's Where It Runs Instead.

On the last Sunday of November 2025, one Magnolia resident left for the airport about three hours early and still missed the flight. In a post KING 5 quoted, they wrote that they "could not get out of Magnolia" and had to pay hundreds of dollars to rebook. Another wrote that there was "not a single road open out of the neighborhood."

The UW Medicine Seattle Marathon returns on Sunday, November 29, and its route through Interbay has been redrawn so that wouldn't happen again. Runners will stay on trails and side streets at the foot of the hill. The Magnolia Bridge stays open, and for the neighborhood the race comes down to a crossing at W Dravus Street and 20th Avenue W that's busy for about two hours. Last year Magnolia was stuck behind the race. This year it has a corner to watch from.

Why last year closed the exits

The 2025 race had to change its usual route because its traditional finish at Seattle Center's Memorial Stadium was closed for construction, KING 5 reported. The Seattle Times counted 8,642 registered runners for that event. The new course ran into the most basic fact about Magnolia's geography. Drivers normally have three ways in and out, and on race morning the closures, stacked on top of construction already underway, left them effectively one: the Magnolia Bridge. Resident Carol Freise told KING 5 the bridge was "down to one lane" and traffic was "backed up for blocks."

Staff at Il Villaggio told KING 5 they saw more foot traffic than usual because customers who had made it in couldn't get back out.

Seattle Marathon President John Kokes responded in a statement to KING 5:

"We plan to sit down with city officials after the event to discuss pinch points in the race for participants as well as residents." Organizers "will continue to work … with the city to alter the course to help alleviate congestion in high volume areas, like Magnolia."

The 2026 course is the result. According to the Magnolia Community Council, the marathon organization worked with the council early in planning and brought the updated route to the council's June 2026 meeting.

The 2026 course stays on the trail side

The change that matters most for Magnolia drivers is that runners won't cross the Magnolia Bridge or W Emerson Street at street level. They pass beneath both. The council lays out the Interbay and Magnolia segment in this order:

1. West along the South Ship Canal Trail
2. Under 15th Avenue W and W Emerson Street on the bike path
3. North on 16th Avenue W
4. Along W Thurman Street and 20th Avenue W
5. South along Gilman Avenue W and the Elliott Bay Trail
6. Under the Magnolia Bridge ramp and on toward the finish downtown

Runners meet car traffic at only two points: W Dravus Street at 20th Avenue W, and Alaskan Way beneath the Magnolia Bridge. Seattle Police will manage both crossings. The bridge ramp stays open overhead while runners go under it on the Elliott Bay Trail.

Compared with last year, that's a big difference. In 2025 the race closed the routes Magnolia drivers rely on to leave. In 2026 it uses the Ship Canal and Elliott Bay trails and the low-traffic streets between them, and it touches a neighborhood exit at just one intersection.

A two-hour window at one corner

The race starts at 5th and Harrison and finishes at Bell Harbor, Pier 66. The full marathon starts at 7:00 a.m. and the half at 8:30 a.m. Because of how the courses overlap, the stretch below Magnolia carries two very different fields at the same time. It's miles 8 to 11 of the half marathon and miles 22 to 24 of the full. So half-marathoners still near the start of their race share the trail with full marathoners in the last few miles of theirs.

The 2:30 p.m. reopening is when the Seattle Marathon gives the whole course back to traffic. For the corner at Dravus and 20th, the 9:40 to 10:40 a.m. hour matters most. If you're leaving the hill by Dravus that morning, plan around it. The council is posting traffic management details on its marathon page, and the race posts road-use schedules on its traffic page.

Where to stand, and where to warm up first

The Magnolia Community Council and the Magnolia Chamber of Commerce have set up the neighborhood cheer zone at W Dravus Street and 20th Avenue W, the same corner where runners cross. A block or so north is Water Station 12, on 20th Avenue W a block south of Thorndyke Avenue W, behind Plumb Works. It's the most central of the three water stations near the Magnolia section. Plumb Works, a plumbing company at 2800 Thorndyke Ave. W, is the landmark to look for.

Three places along the route post Sunday hours that work on race day:

• The Outer Rim, 2821 Thorndyke Ave. W, is across Thorndyke from the water station. It's a coffee shop that opens at 8:00 a.m. on Sundays, which gives you time to get a cup before the lead runners arrive.
• Chinook's at Salmon Bay, 1900 W. Nickerson St., is at Fishermen's Terminal, where the lead half-marathoners are expected around 8:56 a.m. It serves weekend breakfast on Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
• Mulleady's Irish Pub, 3055 21st Ave. W, a short walk from the Dravus corner, starts Sunday brunch at noon and serves it until 3:00 p.m. That's after the main wave of runners has passed.

If you put those together, you get a full morning on the flat at the bottom of the hill. Coffee on Thorndyke around 8:00, the corner at Dravus for the peak hour, and brunch on 21st once the course clears. All of it is within walking distance, so you can leave the car parked until the course reopens.

Signs on Saturday, volunteers on Sunday

The cheer zone starts the weekend before. On Saturday, November 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the council and the Chamber will run a sign-making station at the Magnolia Harvest Market in Magnolia Village. The market is also scheduled to have live music, knife sharpening, a cooking demonstration with chef Hend Yahya, and free face painting.

If you'd rather help on race day than watch, the water stations are the obvious place. Each one typically needs 15 to 30 volunteers to hand out water and sports drinks, cheer, and clean up afterward. The marathon has also offered to form a Magnolia Neighborhood Team with a discount code for residents who want to run. The council's volunteer and updates sign-up is the way in.

Twelve months ago the race left people unable to get out of the neighborhood. On November 29, Magnolia's part of it is a single corner at Dravus and 20th, with the Magnolia Bridge open all morning.

Knowing which of Magnolia's three exits will be open on a given morning is the sort of detail I pay attention to when I plan a listing, from setting showing times to scheduling movers. If you're thinking about selling in Magnolia and want an advisor who knows how the neighborhood works day to day, Seattle Premier Properties offers a Complimentary Home Valuation built on that local knowledge.