Missoula Marathon will be a booming success
by Mark HebertIf you live in Frenchtown and a cannon blast shakes your living room on the morning of July 15, don’t be alarmed -- the British aren’t coming, but a horde of runners is.
“That’s going to be loud,” said Missoula Marathon director Jennifer Boyer. “But people don’t need to run over to Axmen Propane to see if it blew up; it’s just the race starting.” The University of Montana ROTC will be providing the big boom to launch the First Annual Missoula Marathon, which starts in Frenchtown and ends in Missoula, some 26 miles away.
The marathon is the brainchild of a group of local, dedicated runners who want to share the area’s beauty with runners from all over the world, according to the Run Wild Missoula website. The contest will consist of a 26.2-mile traditional marathon, a half marathon, a kids’ run and a “Sundae Run,” so that every type of athlete can come out and compete.
Boyer said that the course is flat for the most part and that it finishes in downtown Missoula.
This year will be the inaugural event, as previously mentioned, but talks about hosting a marathon in Missoula have been going on for years. Boyer was asked to be race director and now is in charge of 30 people who are all making the first-ever Missoula Marathon a reality.
“It’s going to be put on by Run Wild Missoula,” said Boyer. “Our club has been around for 20 or 30 years and used to be called Missoula Road and Track Club.”
Besides making people aware of the marathon itself, Boyer said she wanted to make sure that people who live along the route are aware that the race will be running through the streets of their neighborhoods.
“If people are driving along Mullan Road on that day, we just need them to know that there will runners out there,” she said. “Because there is no shoulder, we aren’t going to cone off the course -- which means that we have to make sure the runners are visible and people are aware that they are out there.”
She said that the Frenchtown Rural Fire Department will be out that day to follow the last runners as they make their way through the course, and that signs will be posted along the route beforehand.
“Still, though, you can’t get that message out there enough,” said Boyer.
As of last week there were approximately 600 athletes signed up to run on the 15th, but that number has jumped by 100 in just one week. Boyer said that currently there are almost 350 athletes registered for the full marathon and the other half are signed up to run the half marathon.
“We’re the biggest marathon in the state already,” she added. “It is absolutely amazing. People are thrilled locally, but outside Montana as well.”
Boyer said that she’s received letters from Iowa, Florida and Connecticut within the U.S. and from as far away as Australia. She added that there will be plenty of “50-state runners,” marathon contestants who try to run events in all 50 states, so people from across the U.S. will be on hand, and even further.
Hajime Nishi, the 50-year-old author of Ecomarathon, an international marathon guidebook, has competed in over 500 marathons during his running days and will be at the Missoula Marathon to participate in what he estimates will be his 536th event.
“He basically goes around spreading the idea of humanitarianism and peace,” said Boyer. “He’s coming, so that should be neat.”
For more information about the Missoula Marathon, visit the Run Wild Missoula website at Missoulamarathon.com or email racedirector@missoulamarathon.org with any questions.