The Louisiana Marathon weekend kicks off Friday with fitness expo – WAFB

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – The Louisiana Marathon has a lot of lagniappe in store for the thousands of runners participating in the multi-race event and plenty of fun for family and friends cheering them on.

“When we started the idea was let’s start an event that has all these different facets of it, different points of entry for anybody who would want to run,” said Pat Fellows, co-founder of The Louisiana Marathon. “What we wanted to do is make it fun and put on a great after party, and then also mimic some of the other big races in the country.”

The Louisiana Marathon is one big party with at least five bands and more than 20 restaurants ready to serve you.

The 8th annual Louisiana Marathon happening Friday, January 18 through Sunday, January 20 includes a fitness expo, food festival and all the live music needed to get your mind off the miles.

Runners have five distance options to choose from with race routes going through downtown Baton Rouge, local neighborhoods, and LSU’s campus.

2019 LOUISIANA MARATHON

• 26.2 Mile Marathon – Sunday at 7 a.m.
• 13.1 Mile Half Marathon – Sunday at 7 a.m.
• 6.55 Quarter Marathon 10K – Saturday at 8 a.m.
• 3.1 Miles 5K – Saturday at 8 a.m.
• 1.2 Mile Kids Marathon – Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

At the end of each race, runners can meet up with their family for a bit of Louisiana culture, music and food.

PARKING

Baton Rouge Police will be strictly enforcing parking rules marathon weekend. According to a post on the BRPD Facebook page, officers tow vehicles that are parked on 4th Street, North Boulevard, and Park Boulevard. Towing will begin 4:00 a.m. Saturday and again 4:00 a.m. Sunday.

“If you’re not running, be patient because there is some traffic associated with it,” said Fellows.

He said to expect about an hour and a half of heavy impact traffic near LSU on race day, adding that the heaviest crossing area will be the intersection at Acadian and Broussard, as well as Claycut.