© Denisa Cellar - The Columbus
The Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon and ½ Marathon has been a longstanding tradition within the community since being named beneficiary of the event in 2012. This year will mark the 41st year of the Columbus Marathon and 15th year of the ½ Marathon with plans for an in-person race in October.
Although last year’s event was canceled due to COVID-19, the plan is to have the 26.2 mile and 13.1 mile races in October as safely as possible. Race Director Darris Blackford says that they are still working with the city and the state health department to plan the race and find out what protocols they will need to follow.
Blackford says that registration for the event typically opens in February, but because of this year’s unique circumstances, registration will open on June 1, 2021.
“June is really when you start thinking about training for a fall marathon anyway, so that works really well for us,” Blackford says. “And (with a) half marathon you have a little bit more time, usually July, when people like to get started for that but you need a little bit longer lead time with a marathon.”
Last year, when the race was canceled, the Columbus Marathon actually offered a full refund to all of the participants that had signed up. Blackford says that because nothing is for certain, they plan to offer that opportunity again if the race needed to be canceled again.
Chris Kasson - The Columbus Mara
“We were very unusual in regards to offering refunds, full refunds, most races around the country and here in Ohio didn't do that, but the Board of Trustees really has always worked hard to be smart and fiscally responsible to where we could do that and still be prepared to go forward this year,” Blackford says.
A crucial aspect of planning such a large race like this one is making sure that the surrounding area and community is not overly disrupted by all of the activity.
“We usually have between 15 and 18,000 people at our start line between the marathon ad the half marathon, you know, it might need to be reduced or it might need to be spread out a little bit but the challenge is there is the main challenges in terms of spreading it out, is we can't extend really, our window to take over the streets of Columbus and the surrounding suburbs,” Blackford says.
He says that they will continue to work closely with the city to see what the city requirements will be in terms of spacing out the race if necessary.
On the upside, because this race has been going on for so long, Blackford says that they have great city partners and vendors that they work with that will help things go smoothly. If all goes well, the race will also be able to help raise even more money for Nationwide Children’s Hospital this year.
Blackford says that the Columbus Marathon was able to raise roughly $500,000 for the hospital throughout 2020 through other fundraising activity, but the hope is to raise more than $1,000,000 with the marathon and ½ marathon this fall.
“It is a fun community activity and event, it involves running and walking, but it's so much more,” Blackford says. “And it's just going to be nice to be able to hopefully put aside the challenges of COVID for a while and just get back to a level of normal, where people can just go out and run and walk or cheer for those people or donate to the hospital, just get back to things that people like to do.”
Helen Widman is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
