It’s that time of the year for runners – the run is happening this weekend. This year’s KL Standard Chartered Marathon 2026 (KLSCM) feels a bit different though, no thanks to the haze that’s suffocating all of us. Anxiety from insufficient training aside, we’re not even sure if the race will proceed – organiser Dirigo will make a decision at 4pm tomorrow.
Here’s hoping that the skies will clear. If it does, KLSCM will see a long list of road closures on Saturday and Sunday – two days instead of one as the 10KM and 5KM distances will be held on Saturday, leaving Sunday for the half and full marathons.
The start and finish line is at Dataran Merdeka, and roads affected by the route include Bulatan Dato Onn to Jalan Raja Laut, Jalan TAR, Jalan Tun Perak, Lebuh Ampang, Jalan Munsyi Abdullah, Jalan Dang Wangi, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, Jalan Raja Abdullah, Jalan P Ramlee, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Jalan Raja Chulan, Jalan Ampang and Jalan Ampang Hilir.
Most of these city centre roads are in the early part of the route and will be closed from 3am to 6.30 to 8.30 am. 42.195 km full marathon runners will then proceed to the long highway stretches of AKLEH, MRR2, Duke (these three will have 11pm to 11am closures) and Jalan Kuching, before making a final dash on Jalan Kinabalu back to Dataran Merdeka.
That’s all happening on Sunday morning. On Saturday morning, the 10KM and 5KM runs will see city centre road closures from 5am to 10am. Flag off times are 6am on Saturday for the 10KM race and 7.45 am for the 5KM race. On Sunday, FM runners will start at 3.30 am and HM runners at 4.45 am.
As usual, organiser Dirigo has arranged free LRT and MRT rides for runners in the morning but while all Rapid KL lines will be operating, trains will not stop at all stations – check the image below to see which stations are covered and drive to the nearest one to hop on.
Note that the free train rides covered by Dirigo are from 3am to 6am on Saturday, and from 1.45 am to 6am on Sunday. Train frequency is every 15 minutes for the LRT and every 20 minutes for the MRT.
Finally, the race pack collection expo a.k.a. Active Lifestyle Expo is happening at MITEC this year (Hall 8, Level 2). The opening hours for today and tomorrow is from 11am to 9pm, while it’s 10am to 7pm on Saturday. There’s even a free shuttle to MITEC from Sunway Putra Mall, which is connected to the LRT. The bus pick-up up points are in front of Chagee at the mall and MITEC’s South Entrance. The frequency is every 30 minutes.
Again, Dirigo will announce the final decision at 4pm tomorrow. “While we remain cautiously optimistic, we will be monitoring the air quality and weather conditions daily, including forecasts. We will weigh our options and update everybody on Friday, 2 October around 4pm regarding what will happen on race weekend,” they said. Fingers crossed.
kalau anak saya baik, boleh consider close road for Rempit Ride-gavanza 3.0? kalau marathon boleh, rempit mesti boleh, kan?
why cant these runs be held at parks, beside lakes, or the likes? why must always close roads for these runs? it is getting too frequent and disturbing our livelihood.
Agreed. There should run up and down Fraser’s Hill not inside metropolitan
Government make biilions of loans, toll concessionaire streches to 40 years, just to accomodate runners?
Boikot standardchartered