In December 2008, the Joplin (Mo.) Visitors and Convention Bureau announced with much fanfare that it would organize a Mother Road Marathon footrace on Route 66 from Miami, Okla., through Kansas and to Joplin, to be run in October 2009.
Citing a weak economy and problems with certifying the race, organizers announced in February that it would be delayed a year.
A recent Joplin Globe report that organizers would not run the race on original Route 66 alignments in Kansas caused consternation with Cherokee County officials — and at least one Route 66 News reader.
That reader wrote in an e-mail:
Incredible to me is that “… half of the marathon would be through Cherokee County, but it would bypass sections of old Route 66 between Baxter Springs and Riverton and from Galena to the Missouri state line…” according to the organizers.
So, what’s the point of calling this event the “Mother Road Marathon” considering HALF the route is OFF Route 66? What a rip-off!
It took me a while to track down the information, but the argument that race organizers are abandoning the Mother Road in Kansas doesn’t hold water when you consider there is more than one alignment of Route 66 there.
Martha Getz, an assistant with the Joplin Visitors and Convention Bureau, said Wednesday that the Mother Road Marathon would start in east Miami, Okla., and go through Commerce, Okla.; Quapaw, Okla.; Baxter Springs, Kan.; Riverton, Kan.; and Galena, Kan.; before finishing on the west edge of Joplin — most likely at Joplin Athletic Complex in Schifferdecker Park.
Although an exact route won’t be final until late August, Getz said the route through Kansas would follow Kansas Highway 66 — a major road in that region.
It’s true the marathon won’t follow the older, more rural alignments of Route 66 in Kansas because of “logistical problems” in keeping the marathon course to 26.2 miles, Getz said.
But Kansas Highway 66 was designated as U.S. 66 from 1960 to 1985. Some parts of Kansas Highway 66 near the Missouri border carried U.S. 66 since the 1940s. So the marathon still will deserve its “Mother Road” moniker.
Perhaps it’s a bit disappointing the marathon won’t go over the Rainbow Bridge near Riverton, the Front Street Bridge near Galena and past 4 Women on the Route in Galena. But the fact the Joplin Bureau is planning Route 66-type festivals in those towns during the marathon weekend mitigates that considerably.