A portion of the Mother Road Marathon, an annual event that goes on Route 66 in southwest Missouri, Kansas and northeast Oklahoma, will be used to benefit boost the morale of tornado-ravaged Joplin, reported the Joplin Globe.
Organizers for the Oct. 9 race says the five-kilometer part of the event will be tagged as a “Run for Joplin.” No other details about the benefit were available. About one-third of Joplin was destroyed by a tornado in May.
The Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau made the announcement not just to boost its city, but to juice up interest in the marathon. With less than two months before the race, only about 100 people had signed up.
More than 1,600 participated in last year’s marathon.
Organizers also re-enlisted Vince Lindstrom, founder of the Mother Road Marathon, to help with the race.
Last year’s race experienced all sorts of problems, which the Globe detailed:
The city had issues with the hired promoter, Dean Reinke of Winter Haven, Fla., who city officials said failed to provide everything that was promised to participants, even running short of awards and certificates of completion.
He was paid $20,000 plus all the entry fees. The tourism bureau spent $30,000, including his fee, to put the event together.
During the dispute, Reinke tried to promote this year’s race, and solicit runners and their entry fees for 2011. He and the city finally settled out of court with the city retaining all legal rights to the event, the city said.
Also, Lindstrom’s replacement resigned after beginning initial plans for the 2011 event.
The 26.2-mile Mother Road Marathon starts in Commerce, Okla., goes through all 13 miles of Route 66 in Kansas, and ends in Joplin.
UPDATE: Unlike what was previously reported, the Globe said in an updated story about the marathon that it was not a benefit for Joplin.
“It is just to get Joplin moving again,” since tornado recovery efforts may have interrupted people’s exercise and recreational activities, Lindstrom said. It also is an effort, he said, to save a regional event that participants deem as important to the area.
Also, organizers are adding a bicycle tour to that weekend. That’s scheduled for Oct. 8, with tour options of 12, 33, 66, or 100 miles.
Proceeds from the tours’ registration fees will go toward finishing the Ruby Jack Trail and maintaining the Frisco Greenway Trail.
I wish the author of these comments would contact me –Patrick Tuttle, 417-625-4789–before posting further information about the Mother Road Marathon and NOT try interpreting what the Joplin Globe is reporting. For the 2011 MRM we had 641 runners in the three distance running events. 2011 was far better organized than the inaugural running. The Joplin CVB staff and nearly 400 volunteers from the 7 communities involved provided better attention-to-details than the “paid consultant” from Florida did last year.
Mr. Lindstrom was back on board this year as a proud volunteer to boost the interest in the 5K “Running For Joplin” in the wake of the devastating May 22nd tornado that destroyed his community, not as an event organizer.
The Route 66 Bicycle Tour is a separate event that shares limited resources with MRM. Both are governed by separate committees.
The Mother Road Marathon has never been billed as an event to raise money for any interest other than to promote and develop an infrastructure for greater distance runner event in the Tri-state region. PT