Running Shorts
N.C. Marathon moves to March
Chill out, runners! You’ve been heard.
The North Carolina Marathon, which will be contested for a third time in 2010, is moving to March 20. That’ll put the 26.2-mile road race and companion half-marathon and 5K six weeks earlier and in weather that is historically 11-12 degrees cooler than the early May date of the race’s first two years.
Melissa Fourrier, the race director and the executive director of Foster Friends of North Carolina, says three factors led to the new date for the High Point event.:
- Lower temperatures should ensure a safer race for runners.
- The May date conflicts with the longer-running Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Winston-Salem.
- A March date would offer fresher staffing resources in High Point before the spring furniture market in April.
The races moved to High Point this year after a debut in Greensboro in May 2008. The fields grew from 1,100 to 1,981 competitors.
“The majority of the feedback (after Greensboro) was the course was really tough and it was really hot,” Fourrier says. “Our number of medical needs, for people that were treated for everything from severe blisters to needing transportation to the hospital, was close to 160. So we really looked at that.”
Last May, Fourrier says, temperatures happened to be 13 degrees cooler at the start of the race, and fewer than 40 runners needed medical attention.
The average low for March 20 is 40 degrees (compared with 51 degrees for May 1), weather.com shows, and the average high for March 20 is 64 degrees (compared with 76 for May 1). Marathon and half-marathon runners will start at 8 a.m., just more than a half-hour after sunrise.
Feedback from runners about the course change was mostly good, Fourrier says.
“We’ve got hills,” she says of a course featuring a 130-foot difference in its lowest and highest points. “We live in the Piedmont, and you can’t avoid that. But it’s a flat start and a flat finish.”
UnitedHealthcare will return as the title sponsor, Fourrier says, with a $50,000 commitment to the event. She’s seeking a title sponsor for the half-marathon for the first time.
“The goal is to make it the best race in the state,” she says. “Our goal in five years is to have this race absolutely be one of the best in the state. Second is to be the primary source of funds for our organization. I think we’re going to get there. Last year was a shot in the arm that we really needed.”
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