Sidelined this year but still want a piece of the action? Make Metro Rail your curbside ticket to the Los Angeles Marathon. Check out the L.A. Marathon’s animated video of the route this year and pick a good spot close to a Metro Rail station.

Eight Metro Rail stations are within walking distance of the first half of the race course: the Chinatown and Little Tokyo/Arts District Gold Line stations and the Union Station, Civic Center, Vermont/Sunset, Hollywood/Western, Hollywood/Vine and Hollywood/Highland Red/Purple Line subway stations.

But if you’re going somewhere else on Sunday, take note. Metro Bus service will be diverted to bypass the 26-mile “Stadium to the Sea” marathon race course.

Bus routes will be detoured in downtown Los Angeles, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Regular service on some lines will be restored as the race progresses but full service on all lines is not expected to resume until approximately early evening. See service advisory for Los Angeles Marathon on metro.net.

Metro will ramp up rail service in the morning with six-car trains on the Red and Purple subway lines and and two-car trains on the Gold Line. Here’s a tip for the return trip: buy a day pass and hop back on board to skip the lines at the ticket machine.  Staff will assist customers transferring to and from detoured bus service at Vermont/Santa Monica Red Line Station and elsewhere as needed.

The 2010 Marathon featured the debut of the new crosstown course, which took runners through four cities. The newly revised course adds Chinatown’s Dragon Gateway and the Little Tokyo Historic District to the world-famous landmarks that line the 26-mile race to the Pacific Ocean. Check it out at lamarathon.com.