The issue is that there is no way to "plan" for those particular streets being closed. You're just screwed for half of the day if you need to go anywhere that involves crossing North Capitol or Harvard Street--so essentially you're trapped. Couple this with various WMATA service outages that are not coordinated, and you have a recipe for disaster. Traffic becomes a total gridlock.

The "plan" is just to not go anywhere that particular day.

Have the marathon run the same routes that the other ones (e.g. Marine Corps) do down by the mall, and don't bring that nonsense up into core residential and business districts.

It's unfair to all of us, especially those who commute into the city in the morning to staff all of the bars and restaurants for your brunches and St. Patty's festivities.