← Baltimore Marathon·On foot

Inner Harbor: The Walk That Starts at the Finish Line

An aquarium, an 1854 warship and a hilltop view of the skyline, all within a kilometre of where the marathon ends.

DurationOn foot
TransitOn foot from the finish line at McKeldin Plaza
DepartsMcKeldin Plaza, Pratt Street

After the Baltimore Marathon: Inner Harbor

The Route: McKeldin Plaza (finish) → Piers 1 and 3 → Federal Hill Park → back Logistics: All on foot. The full circuit is around 3 km on flat ground, apart from the steps up Federal Hill. Marathon Month: October Duration: Half a day, or spread across the afternoon and the following morning

McKeldin Plaza ──(3 min)──> Pier 1: USS Constellation
        │                            │
        │                      (5 min) ▼
        │                     Pier 3: National Aquarium
        ▼
  Federal Hill Park (15 min south, steps at the top)

The marathon finishes at McKeldin Plaza on Pratt Street, which puts the whole of the Inner Harbor inside a fifteen-minute walk of the moment you stop running. That is unusual, and it is why this belongs on race day itself. Everything below is on level ground except the last climb.

The ships on Piers 1 and 3

The USS Constellation is moored at Pier 1, a couple of minutes from the finish. She is a sloop-of-war launched in 1854 and the last sail-only warship the US Navy built, with three decks open to walk. The gun deck is low, so expect to stoop. Tickets cover the other vessels in the Historic Ships collection nearby, including a Second World War submarine, and you can see two or three of them in an afternoon if the legs allow.

The National Aquarium is a short walk further round the water at Pier 3, and it is the one attraction in Baltimore that fills a morning on its own. The building steps upward through its exhibits, so there are ramps and escalators but a lot of vertical distance covered slowly. Buy a timed ticket online before race weekend: October Saturdays sell out, and the queue on the pier is exposed to the wind off the water.

Federal Hill

Federal Hill Park sits about fifteen minutes south of the harbour on the far side of the water, and it gives the view that every photograph of Baltimore is taken from: the harbour basin below, the downtown towers behind it, and the cranes of the working port off to the east. The park is on top of a bluff and the last section is a flight of steps, which is the only real climb of the day. Go at the end of the afternoon, when the light is behind you.

The streets between the water and the hill, around Cross Street Market, are where the neighbourhood actually eats.

Where to Stay and Eat

Where to stay: The hotels along Pratt Street and Light Street put you inside the finish area, which matters more than usual here: you can walk to your room in ten minutes wearing a foil blanket. Harbor East, twenty minutes east along the promenade, is quieter and has the better restaurants.

Where to eat: Crab is the local answer and October is still inside the season. A crab house will hand you a wooden mallet and a paper-covered table, which takes a while and is meant to. For something faster after the race, Cross Street Market in Federal Hill and the stalls in Harbor East both work.

Getting Home

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport is about 15 km south of the city. The Light Rail runs from Convention Center station, five minutes from the finish, directly to the airport terminal in around 30 minutes, and the MARC Penn Line from Penn Station is faster if you are already north of the harbour. Allow extra time on the Sunday: MARC runs a reduced weekend timetable.