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More Than 30,000 Expected To Take Part In Pittsburgh Marathon

More than 30,000 participants will take to the streets of Pittsburgh this Sunday for the annual Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon. The city-wide event features a kids marathon, a pet walk, a 5K run, half-marathon, marathon relay, and full marathon along with more than 100 entertainment acts going on all weekend.

Pittsburgh Marathon CEO Patrice Matamoros says security precautions will be similar to those put in place last year after the bombings in Boston.

“We decided that it would just become a part of best practices to create a very secure environment, so we have followed through in doing that for year 2 now since we’ve started it and I think it’s a really great thing,” said Matamoros.

Matamoros says organizers have focused on encouraging community participation for this year’s event.

“We have partnered with over 200 different community organizations to put together festivals and parties so that a runner has 26.2 miles of a city festival,” said Matamoros. 

Those running the full 26.2 miles will trek through 13 of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods. The course remains the same as preceding marathons and will take runners across Pittsburgh’s three rivers. Motorists should expect some delays due to road closures along the route.

According to Matamoros, the field for this year’s race is the most competitive in years.

“We have two athletes that are coming in, one is the male who won the LA Marathon and the other is the female who won the LA Marathon earlier this year, they’re both coming and the female is capable of smashing our course record which would be great because it’s a 26 year old record.

Check out the course here.