The St. Jude Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville Marathon returned to Music City this weekend, and roads across Nashville closed early Saturday morning as runners took on the 26.2-mile course. Traffic enforcement was already underway before the race began, with closures expected to last through the early afternoon.
Event organizers said most roads would be closed between 5 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, and Metro police posted no-parking signs along the route. The Metro Nashville Police Department warned drivers, “Please take them seriously. Towing begins at midnight tonight!”
The race route cut through a long list of neighborhoods and districts, including 400 Davidson, 12 South-Belmont, Downtown, East Nashville, the Gulch, Music Row, Salemtown and Metrocenter. For people trying to move around the city, the changes reached beyond the course itself: some WeGo bus routes were detoured, while the WeGo Star was taking people to Nashville for the race.
That mix of closures, detours and parking enforcement made Saturday a logistics day as much as a race day for Nashville. Organizers said questions or concerns could be emailed to community.cgi@ironman.com, and they also listed 615-826-5950 as a contact number for people needing help with access around the event.
The timing mattered because the marathon returned on a weekend when thousands of people were trying to get around the city at once, and the city moved early to keep runners and drivers separated. For anyone living or working along the route, the practical answer came first: know the closures, move the car, and expect the normal rhythm of downtown and nearby neighborhoods to change for the better part of the morning.