Boulder Marathon Cancelled

Anton wasn't the RD of the Mile High City Marathon. He created the Denver Marathon the next year after the MHCM was cancelled.As far as human movement goes, if they can get a permit in two weeks, there is something really shady going on in Boulder County seeing as the CSP says the they need a permit 90 days out and the Boulder County Special Event Office needs a permit 60 days out.Also, as much as Jeff Mason is a fraud, he does own a trademark on the Boulder Marathon name, so if Human Movement keeps pushing that, I see a lawsuit coming their way, especially since Mason has every intention of holding the race in 2015.Seems to me like Human Movement is trying to "steal" the race without purchasing it. Plus, they have never done any actual real running events, so I doubt it would be very good.

Thanks for the link to the article. Read it through, lots of sound bites from Mr. Mason, but still not a lot of substance into exactly why he's unable to produce a race that he's been advertising for a year, and which he produced prior to 12 months ago. Perhaps he gave more complete answers and the reporter chose to not print them?

The comments at the bottom are interesting, more detail than the usual comments you see after a lot of newspaper articles. One guy goes into detail about how the excuse of having to change the course may not be much of a solution, or at least may be trying to solve a problem that may not really exist. I don't know the Boulder course so it's impossible for me to comment about this specific case, but I have done course design and measurement for 20 years. The Boulder Spring Half Marathon, during which Ms. Dillon tragically passed away, was May 4. If Mr. Mason didn't have alternative course plans in his files prior to that, it would be likely that the thought of needing to change his marathon course came up some time before May 31. Whether the thought was raised by him or by local authorities really doesn't matter. Let's even say it was sometime in June. If you live in a community and direct races in that same community, it shouldn't take more than a couple weeks to analyze where your potential course problems are and come up with alternatives. Measuring and certifying and filing with USATF can happen in a couple days. All that, to me, indicates that any excuses related to "didn't have enough time" are bogus.

If the Boulder Spring HM had been in August I could see a time crunch for a course redesign from scratch for an October marathon. Mr. Mason had an additional 90 days.

My points of reference on the dates I'm throwing out above...The marathon I work for had one course for the first 2 years. Race takes place late May. For the 3rd year the course was completely redesigned due to problems with traffic in the 2nd edition; new start area, entirely new routing. The date on the new map is October 2, and that work was done 25 years ago when you didn't have all the online resources you have now to sketch out a route. That means the work was started about a month on the calendar after Boulder's issue was known, and was completed in time for what would be Boulder's race date. Then 3 years after that redesign it was decided to move the finish to a different part of town, necessitating another complete course redesign. That work was started in February and complete by early May.

I'm sure Mr. Mason had a good reason for not wanting to put on this race, but in my experience the issues related to course redesign and measurement that he states don't ring true.

The Denver Marathon was around in the late 1970's , sorry its not a new concept for the city of Denver. Creigh is in it for money he is professional , if it does not pencil out to be profitable he doesn't get involved. Profit comes into play when you have sponsors to offset the cost of running the event.

Many of the people getting involved in this new running boom arena want to be event coordinators , race directors who like the idea of putting on an event but lack the working knowledge of event management from every element of running a race organization.

Boulder is full of people with to much time on their hands sitting in coffee shops to come with ideas without the means to fund it or the knowledge to manage it but think its a really cool idea to pursue for something to do.

Boulder does not need a marathon. Half marathon maybe yes, oh great idea , let me get another cup of coffee and hope the wifi comes back up as I hog this table in the corner of the coffee shop , prior to heading off to my yoga class.

Boulder denied permits for the replacement marathon. What is wrong with this town?

Depending on who you talk to, the Boulder Marathon was for years best described as being run on a shoestring budget. Other descriptions are less generous. Unpaid or late paid bills, tax liens, lack of food, water and other services at finish and along the course etc.

Imagine hosting a party for 2000 people. There are a lot of things to take care of-some running related, some not. Many partners are needed to throw such a party. These partners include the city, the police department, ambulance companies, T-shirt suppliers, food service, beer sponsors, portapotties etc. These folks want a good portion of their costs paid upfront. Add to that the fact that last year's flooded out entry fees got rolled forward to this year. Assume the 2000 registrants for this year included at least a thousand from last year-and that money was largely spent a year ago. I'm guessing what happened is the race director needed 100 grand to throw this party, and he only had fifty.

Regarding the city denying the permit-smart. Their job is to protect the health and safety of the public. Throwing together a race in two weeks quite likely would have ended up killing someone-either traffic, dehydration, medical attention, etc. Not enough time to plan, review and approve such a race.

Throwing together a race in two weeks?? Really.

I'm throwing a party for 2,000 runners, I make plans....sooner not later.

Some fishy stuff...here!

Oh, I've run in this event twice(10k),family member marathon. Thought event went well, both times.

The permit I referred to that was just rejected was for a replacement race proposed by a competing promoter, that was being thrown together in two weeks.

runz2win wrote:

Throwing together a race in two weeks?? Really.

I'm throwing a party for 2,000 runners, I make plans....sooner not later.

Some fishy stuff...here!