Getting to Races Without a Car: How to Plan Bib Pickup, the Start and the Journey Home

Travelling to a race without a car is often easier than it looks. Trains, buses, metros and local transport can take you surprisingly close to many events, especially in larger cities.

The problem is that race guides usually stop at broad instructions: take the metro to this station, parking is available nearby, or the start is accessible by public transport. That is useful, but it is not quite enough.

What runners actually need is a checked door-to-door itinerary: where to collect the bib, how to get to the start early in the morning, where the finish is, and how to get home when roads are closed and thousands of people are leaving at the same time.

If you are planning to run without a car, these five steps can make the whole race weekend much easier.

1. List the expo, start and finish locations separately

Do not assume they are all in the same place.

For some races, bib collection happens at the start area. For others, the race expo can be several kilometres away, sometimes in a convention centre, shopping centre, stadium or completely different part of the city.

The finish line may also be somewhere else.

Before looking at transport, write down the exact location of:

• bib collection or race expo;
• start line;
• finish line;
• your accommodation;
• the station, airport or bus terminal you will use to arrive and leave.

Then check the distance between each one.

A route that looks simple when you search only for the start line can become much more complicated once you realise that bib pickup is on the other side of the city the afternoon before.

It also helps to save the exact address, rather than only the name of the venue. Large parks, stadiums and event areas may have several entrances, and the entrance used on race day may not be the one your navigation app automatically selects.

Think of the race weekend as several separate journeys:

arrival → accommodation → bib collection → accommodation → start → finish → journey home

Once those are clear, the transport plan becomes much easier to build.

2. Check the bib collection window first

Bib pickup can be more restrictive than getting to the race itself.

A train arriving at 20:00 might seem perfect for a Sunday morning race—until you discover that bib collection closes at 19:00 on Saturday and there is no race-morning collection.

For that reason, check the bib collection rules before booking your transport.

Look for:

• opening and closing times;
• whether collection is available on more than one day;
• whether race-morning collection is allowed;
• whether someone else can collect your bib;
• what documents are required;
• whether there is a specific time slot assigned to you.

This is especially important when travelling from another city or country.

If the expo closes at 18:00, do not build an itinerary that gets you there at 17:50 after two train connections. A short delay could leave you unable to race.

Give yourself a buffer.

For example, if bib collection closes at 19:00, aiming to arrive around 17:30 or 18:00 gives you much more protection against transport delays.

The race start may be the main event, but bib collection is often the real deadline that determines your travel schedule.

3. Build both the outward and return itineraries

Most runners carefully plan how to reach the start and barely think about how they will leave.

That is a mistake.

Build two separate itineraries:

Getting to the start

Check the first available train, metro, tram or bus.

A route that works perfectly at 10:00 may not exist at 05:30.

Race starts are often early enough that normal public transport schedules have not fully begun, particularly on Sundays.

Calculate backwards from the start time.

If your race starts at 08:00, you might want to be in the start area by 07:00 or 07:15. That means accounting for:

• travel time;
• walking from the station;
• bag drop;
• toilets;
• security checks;
• finding your starting corral;
• any queues or unexpected delays.

If the first public transport service gets you there at 07:50, it is not really a viable option.

Getting home from the finish

The return journey deserves just as much attention.

You may finish in a different location from where you started, and some public transport stops may be closed or temporarily relocated because of the race.

Also consider how you will feel after racing.

A 25-minute walk to the station may seem reasonable when planning from your sofa. After a marathon, it can feel very different.

Look for the easiest route rather than automatically choosing the shortest one.

If you have a train home at 14:00, do not calculate your journey based on your target finish time alone. Add time for:

• collecting your bag;
• changing clothes;
• eating or drinking;
• walking through crowded finish areas;
• transport queues;
• possible delays.

You should know your route home before you reach the start line.

4. Allow for road closures and access restrictions

Race morning is not a normal morning in the city.

Large running events can close roads several hours before the start, and buses, taxis and ride-hailing services may be diverted long before runners begin racing.

This matters even if you are not travelling by car.

A bus route shown in your normal journey planner might cross the race course and therefore operate differently on race morning. A taxi may be able to get you within 200 metres of the start on Saturday but only within 2 kilometres on Sunday.

Look for information about:

• road closure times;
• temporary public transport changes;
• closed metro entrances;
• relocated bus stops;
• pedestrian-only zones;
• security checkpoints around the start;
• restrictions near the finish area.

Pay particular attention to phrases such as “access to the start only from…”, “station exit closed” or “participants must enter through…”.

For major events, organisers sometimes publish dedicated race-day transport guides closer to the event. These can be much more useful than the general information published when registrations first open.

That leads to another important rule: do not assume the transport plan you made three months earlier will still be correct on race week.

5. Add a backup plan and a verification date

Every transport plan should have a Plan B.

You may never need it, but race morning is not the moment to start searching for alternatives.

Your backup could be:

• another train or metro line;
• a different station within walking distance;
• a pre-booked taxi to the closest accessible point;
• staying closer to the start;
• travelling with another runner;
• taking an earlier service.

You do not need five alternatives. You simply need to know what you will do if your first option fails.

It is also useful to choose a verification date.

For example:

One week before the race: recheck the organiser’s race guide, bib collection details and transport information.

Two or three days before: check public transport schedules, planned engineering works, strikes and road closures.

The night before: confirm the first service of the morning and save the route offline.

Transport information can change. The route you saved when you registered six months ago should not automatically be trusted on race weekend.

A simple race transport checklist

By the week of the race, you should be able to answer these questions without opening Google Maps:

Bib collection: Where is it? When does it close? How am I getting there?

Start: Where exactly is the entrance? What time do I need to leave? What is the first available public transport service?

Finish: Is it in the same location? Where is my bag collection?

Journey home: Which station am I using? How long will it realistically take to get there after finishing?

Backup: What will I do if the first train, bus or metro does not run?

If you know all five, travelling to a race without a car becomes much less stressful.

Public transport can actually make race day easier

Driving is not always the simplest option.

At many races, parking is limited, roads are closed and cars have to be left far from the start anyway. Public transport can remove the need to find parking, navigate closures or return to the start area after finishing somewhere else.

The key is not simply checking whether a race is “accessible by public transport”.

The useful question is:

Can I get from where I am staying to bib collection, then to the start on race morning, and from the finish back home—at the exact times I need to do it?

That is the difference between a transport suggestion and a real race plan.

Before your next race, build the entire journey, check it again during race week, and save your backup option. Then the only route you need to worry about on race day is the course itself.