Unless you’re a runner or a road race fan, stay clear of the Merrimack River and its crossings on Sunday morning. At 8 am, many of hundreds of runners participating in the BayState Marathon and Half Marathon will depart from the UML Tsongas Center and proceed along Pawtucket Street and then back along the Pawtucket Boulevard. The half marathon goes to the Rourke Bridge and the full marathon reaches the Tyngsborough Bridge. That means the Ouellette Bridge on Aiken Street, the University Ave Bridge, the O’Donnell Bridge on School Street, the Rourke Bridge and the Tyngsborough Bridge will be out of commission from before 8 am until early afternoon. Actual course maps are available on the BayState’s website.

The BayState is a great event for the city. Runners from all over New England come for the race and they get to see some very picturesque parts of the city. Sure, it inconveniences folks who get caught in the traffic, but the city as a whole benefits from the event. So plan your Sunday morning accordingly.