Akron Marathon officials typically get a little bump in "buzz" about the September run when registration opens in January, according to race director Brian Polen.

In his seven years on the job, however, Polen has not seen an opening quite like this one. More than 1,000 runners registered on Jan. 9, a record-breaking opening day for the 16-year-old marathon. Running clubs and groups from all over the city are asking him to come and speak.

"People are excited. They are talking about it. They almost can't wait," he said. "A lot of people have started their countdown calendar, and I can't tell you how fun it is to see a fresh batch of excitement in our local running community."

The catalyst behind this "fresh batch of excitement" was the announcement, a day earlier, that the marathon start line will move 3.5 miles west from South High Street, near the corner of University Avenue, to a location inside the gates of Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens. While runners will still end their journey at Canal Park Stadium, a West Akron start transforms the longtime loop course — which began and ended within two city blocks for the past several years — to a point-to-point race. That means a whole lot more shuttling will be required, said Anne Bitong, executive director of the Akron Marathon Charitable Corp.

In previous marathons, buses from Akron Metro RTA escorted 3,500 to 4,000 relay runners to various exchange zones on the route throughout the six-hour event. This year, Metro will move nearly twice that number even before the race begins. Polen said upward of 6,500 marathoners, half-marathoners and first-leg relay runners will park downtown — as they have in the past — and jump on shuttles from the former start line on South High to Stan Hywet for the 7:30 a.m. start.

"Another thing we have done is move the start time from 7 to 7:30 a.m.," Polen said, partly because Stan Hywet's grounds don't have the same level of illumination at 7 a.m. as downtown streets, but also to provide shuttle time.

"So if I were a runner and I was used to parking downtown at 6 (a.m.), I would still park downtown at 6 and use the additional half hour with the start-time change to accommodate my travel," he said.

With the start-line change, eight to 10 more buses will be needed, compared with previous marathons, bringing the Sept. 28 race-day shuttle fleet to about 40, according to Metro RTA spokeswoman Molly Becker. Sourcing those buses is not a concern, Becker said, because it's on a Saturday and the extra buses would have been off duty in the garage.

Paying Metro for the added vehicles and manpower is not a significant issue either, Bitong said, noting that transportation accounts for roughly 1% of the marathon's annual expenses, eating up less of the budget than other line items provided to runners such as swag and giveaways.

The operating budget is $1.3 million, which covers the three races in the series: an 8K in June, a half marathon and 10K in August, and the marquee event in September, Bitong said. Akron Children's Hospital is the title beneficiary of the series, and the events have raised $1.3 million toward patient care over the past three years.

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan thinks the point-to-point design actually might be less taxing on local police and safety forces. Three of the final 4 miles, for example, are on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, which reduces the number of intersections that have to be shut down and manned. Horrigan said the city provides those safety services free of charge, planning as much as a year in advance to accommodate the demands of that one day.

"It's kind of like a national holiday for the city. Residents get excited. They get up early to cheer runners on," he said. "I think (marathon officials) know best on how to stage an event in and around the assets and limits of what Akron has to offer, and we are here to support that."

The change is well worth any other costs and headaches associated with additional internal planning and coordination with the city, transit authorities and the folks at Stan Hywet, Polen said, because the aim is to improve the experience for marathon participants.

"Since I have been here, this will be the first time we are changing the course because we want to make it a better course for our runners, as opposed to reacting to something that is out of our control," he said.

The Akron Marathon has long been known as "a pretty challenging course," according to Bitong. Many marathoners choose races based on hills and elevation, she said. The previous route required runners, at about the halfway point, to climb out of downtown into West Akron.

By moving the start line to West Akron, the course will be "flatter and faster," she said, as marathoners begin at the high point and run downhill. In fact, the redesigned course features a net 300-foot drop.

"We have taken our biggest disadvantage and turned it into our advantage," Polen said.

An added benefit, according to Polen, is that "half-marathoners now get to weave in and out of West Akron before the downhill finish into the stadium." On the previous course, half-marathoners never made it to Akron's west end.

"Something that we have heard from our half runners many times is that they'd love to run in West Akron," he said.

In both cases, runners will experience some of Akron's best urban assets, Polen noted, as the final segment of their 26.2- or 13.1-mile foot tour takes them on the Towpath Trail, over the Summit Lake floating bridge and into the city, where they will pass Akron Children's Hospital "with the patients out cheering them on and the excitement of the campus."

"To me, the most exciting part of all of this is that we are rolling out an Akron Marathon course that we as a staff, we as a city, want our runners to experience," Polen said, "and that hasn't been the case for the past few years."