Joplin may revive the Mother Road Marathon — a 26.2-mile footrace through parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri discontinued in 2013 after declining participation and complaints about its promoter.
Tom Rogers of TwelveOne Race Management and Marketing in Joplin, who helps run 35 events a year, wants permission from the city council to use its license for the copyrighted name, data and social-media accounts to restart the Mother Road Marathon.
Patrick Tuttle of the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau director, urged ending the marathon several years ago because it didn’t have a reputable manager. However, he recommends reviving it because of Rogers’ reputation.
Rogers said he could reorganize the marathon with three to four days of Route 66-related events that could draw runners and tourists alike.
Rogers said he may persuade the organizer of Joplin’s annual Zerkapalooza music festival to move it from August to early October on the same weekend of the marathon. He also said he’s talking with area Native American tribes to organize events that weekend.
The Joplin Globe gave an overview of the event’s troubled past:
There was a dispute between the city and the race promoter, Dean Reinke Sports Group, of Florida, which ended with the city obtaining an injunction against Reinke, who tried to take over the marathon by collecting entry fees and sponsorships for the next year’s run without including the city. The city was paying the bills for the event. Reinke later tried the same thing in other cities and was banned from them.
After that, with the city trying to run the event without a professional promoter, entries declined each year until participation fell below 600 and did not cover the city’s expenses. The council ended the event in 2013 when the entries and sponsorships fell $35,000 short of covering the city’s expenses.
The city council likely will decide next week whether to revive the marathon.
The marathon course was notable for a 220-foot elevation rise from Riverton, Kansas, to Joplin. No runners would break records with a challenging incline. But it might prove alluring to serious competitors.
One possible hurdle in reviving the Mother Road Marathon it might be close in the calendar to the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa. The Tulsa event — held in November — has proven to be popular. It draws entrants from many states and even a few foreign countries.
Most marathon runners typically need at least a month to recover from a race. If it’s less time than that, runners may choose to run the Route 66 Marathon or the Mother Road Marathon. But they probably won’t do both.
(Image of the Mother Road Marathon in 2013 via Facebook)