Thousands of runners will crowd the Grand Strand this weekend for the 18th Annual Myrtle Beach Marathon.
This year’s event consists of five separate races, ranging from the Ripley’s Aquarium Family Fun Run to the MyrtleBeach.com Marathon. On Thursday, pre-race festivities kicked off at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center with the HTC Runners’ Expo.
Many runners picking up their bibs and welcome bags say they’re ready to dominate the courses.
“We wanted to try the 5k. We’re working our way up to doing a whole half in April,” Ron and Linda Anderson said. “We’ve never done a night run before, so we think it’ll be fun.”
Myrtle Beach Marathon Co-Founder Shaun Walsh says the event’s popularity has slowly grown in recent years. Organizers have found the races have become tradition for runner year after year, like Keith Holleman of North Carolina.
“The experience was just great and something I’ve thought about for a long time,” Holleman said when asked how the 2014 MyrtleBeach.com Marathon went. “And just something I’ve finally decided to do and it was tough, but it was very rewarding.”
Behind the scenes, Walsh and his team continue to knock out a laundry list of to-do items before the start of Saturday’s marathon and half marathon. City of Myrtle Beach crews have worked to clean the race routes throughout the course of this week, while volunteers have stuffed welcome bags, organized bibs and set up for the Runners’ Expo.
“In the morning on Saturday morning, there’ll be about 2,000 cones and 500 barricades set up to go around the course as well,” he added.
However, this is the last year – at least for a while – runners will race in February. Organizers announced a date change for the 2016 Myrtle Beach Marathon, now scheduled for the weekend of March 5.
“I think aesthetically, the word ‘March’ in front of a race may make people a little more interested in coming to our event,” Walsh explained.
He says he is currently working on contracts that would move the annual race to March through at least 2019. He says he believes it will benefit the race and Grand Strand if it is moved further away from Valentine’s Day and President’s Day Weekend.
“Traditionally the hotels and restaurants seem to be a little busier around that time of year,” he described. “So what we’re trying to do is maybe spread out the economic impact into another slow weekend.”
Runners, though, say they are certainly up for the date change.
“We have a condo reserved for next year,” the Andersons said. “We’ll be back here for next winter, also. I don’t like the cold. March would be much better for me. But once you start running, you get pretty warm right away.”
For full details on the 2015 Myrtle Beach Marathon, click here.
