Getting around Las Vegas marathon street closings

Las Vegas Boulevard, much of downtown and even some areas of North Las Vegas are going to be restricted to traffic from 2 p.m. to as late as 11 p.m. today to accommodate the Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon and Half-Marathon.

The marathon will start at 3 p.m., with the half-marathon to begin at 4:30 p.m.

Both races will start on Las Vegas Boulevard, at Dewey Road, across from Mandalay Bay. Runners will briefly go south in the northbound lanes of the Strip, before making a hairpin turn and running the southbound lanes north, until reaching downtown some eight miles out.

Marathon runners will eventually go west, until they hit Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where they'll travel north past Carey Avenue, before reversing field and making an almost four-mile west/east run on Carey. They then will return to southbound Martin Luther King and back to downtown before eventually connecting to the Strip via Casino Center Boulevard. The race ends in front of The Mirage.

Half-marathon enthusiasts will run a few downtown streets before using Fourth Street southbound to reconnect with the Strip, where they also will finish at The Mirage.

For motorists, this means rolling road closures throughout affected areas. Streets will reopen as soon as the last participant has passed, and all course support materials have been removed.

Streets along the earlier miles of the route - outside of the Strip, of course - will open sooner than those toward the end of the route.

Motorists will be prohibited from crossing the Strip or exiting from Interstate 15 onto eastbound Charleston Boulevard, Sahara and Tropicana avenues, and Flamingo and Russell roads.

The freeway's onramps and offramps will remain open.

Between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., police and event personnel might implement a soft closure along the entire course.

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is altering bus schedules today, with delays on some routes between 1:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., the agency said. Riders using routes with major detours should allow themselves extra time to reach their destinations.