The tri-state Mother Road Marathon is planning for 2012 in spite of losing nearly $31,000 in the previous year’s event, reported the Joplin (Mo.) Globe.
The 26.2-mile footrace starts in Commerce, Okla., winds on Route 66 through Kansas, and ends in the western edge of Joplin. The 2012 race is set for Oct. 14.
The newspaper reported:
Income, mostly from entry fees, amounted to $32,719, while expenses totaled $63,678, according to Patrick Tuttle, director of the tourism bureau. […]
The initial run attracted about 1,500 participants. Tuttle said last year’s event drew 641 runners: 138 for the full marathon, 292 for the half-marathon and 211 for the 5K run.
Tuttle attributed the decrease in runners last year largely to the impact of the May 22 tornado.
“The perception of some runners was the race wasn’t going to happen, and that was hard to overcome once implanted,” he said. There was a misperception that lodging and restaurants would not be available to the runners, and that volunteers would be focused on tornado recovery and would not be available to put on the event, he said.
To call it a “misperception” is stretching the truth. In the weeks after the tornado, it was well-documented that many motels within 150-mile radius of Joplin were booked full with aid workers, the newly homeless, and construction crews. Volunteers helped throughout the summer. The problem with the lack of lodging, restaurants, and volunteers was real. It’s impossible to not experience such problems when a tornado destroys one-third of a city.
Organizers also attributed part of the dropoff in the marathon to a dispute with the marathon’s initial organizer, Reinke Sports Group of Winter Park, Fla. The city of Joplin had paid Reinke a $30,000 settlement to sever the relationship. Also, the race’s founder retired.
I’m glad that the marathon’s organizers are giving it another try. Such events often break even, at best. But the steep losses that occurred in 2011 almost certainly was an aberration.