Opening Week is a month away. But already it is too late to join in one of the activities related to the opening of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The Oriole Advocates 8-K Home Run road race is closed. Last week, entries for the event, scheduled for April 5, a day before the ballpark's official opening, reached the limit of 2,000, race director Les Kinion said.

The race route will connect Baltimore's baseball past with its future -- beginning at Memorial Stadium and winding through downtown streets to the new ballpark, where runners will finish on the outfield warning track.

The 2,000 runners easily surpassed the record for the Oriole Advocates race. In three previous events, the record was 950. Kinion said the 2,000-runner limit was imposed because the ballpark's 18-foot warning track only could accommodate six chutes in which runners could finish.

"We can't go on the grass and we can't go into the bleachers,"

Kinion said.