Lincoln Marathon: It's come a long, long way
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
BY JEFF KORBELIK / Lincoln Journal Star
Susan Scott wasn’t amused. One of 11 women to finish the inaugural Lincoln Marathon 30 years ago, she opened her newspaper the next day to the headline: “Karthauser wins; female in top 20.”
The reporter led his story with a female dog — a Doberman named Kubla Khan — placing 16th with her owner from Sioux Falls, S.D.
Scott used an expletive not suitable for the newspaper to describe her reaction.
Related Media
The Good Life from the marathon
David Burge is at the finish line of the Lincoln Marathon, looking for some pain ointment and a slice of the good life. (Anthony Roberts / JournalStar...
Related Link(s):
- 95,000 cups of water
- 90,000 cups of Gatorade
- 185,000 straws
- 2,112 gallons of water
- 240,000 safety pins (for attaching race numbers to jerseys)
- 2,100 volunteers
- 2,280 donut holes
- 12,000 balloons
- 750 pounds of pasta
- 400 gallons of pasta sauce
Source: Marathon co-director Nancy Sutton
Sunday's forecast
Mostly sunny, high of 66; low of 40.
“I wrote a letter to the editor,” said Scott, who has run in every Lincoln Marathon since. “It goes to show you how far we’ve come.”
Indeed, the Lincoln Marathon has come a long way since that first race.
“We don’t know (what happened),” race co-director Nancy Sutton said. “All of sudden there’s been another boon for long-distance running.”
Especially among women.
Sunday’s race, which begins at 7 a.m. on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, will feature a record number of entrants.
As of Tuesday, 5,945 runners had committed to the race, with 4,569 signed up for the half marathon. Of that total, 3,259 are women, making it the second straight year ladies outnumber gentlemen.
“Normally that doesn’t happen,” Sutton said.
Nor does a female runner win a race, which occurred March 28 at the local State Farm Run. Eleven-year-old Rebekah Topham from Griswold, Iowa, won the children’s 1-mile race, finishing 25 seconds ahead of the second-place, 14-year-old boy.
“Women are really taking hold of the marathon thing and running,” Sutton said. “They are embracing it.”
Lincoln hosted its first marathon on Mother’s Day on May 14, 1978. The race, as it does now, began on campus before heading down Capitol Parkway to A Street.
Organizers then brought it back downtown via 10th Street before sending it out past Oak Lake and around the airport. It finished back on campus.
Lincoln Track Club member Jim Lewis, who measured the original course on his bicycle, remembered organizers first planning a one-way marathon between Lincoln and Branched Oak Lake.
“At some point we came to our senses,” he said. “The logistics of busing people to the start was pretty phenomenal. I was really glad we started and finished on the university campus.”
The race began to prosper over the years thanks to several developments that make the race what it is today. They include:
- Making Lincoln the home for the National Guard Marathon Trials, beginning in 1984.
- Creating the “Lucky 13 Club” for runner who have run the race 13 times.
- Organizing the one-mile Mayor’s Run for children up to the sixth grade. This year, it begins at 8 a.m. Saturday.
- Offering a night-before pastathon and runner’s expo.
- And providing little things such as cups with lids and straws at aid stations and postrace massages.
The biggest development came in Year 10 when organizers redesigned the course.
Wind blew over concrete-weighted mileage signs the year before.
“We were afraid nobody would come to our race after that wind,” Lewis said. “We didn’t want to gain this horrible reputation.”
Lewis created the current course, which he felt highlighted the city’s beauty, including Sheridan Boulevard, Union College, the Country Club of Lincoln and Holmes Lake. It included lots of trees and buildings for wind blockage.
The new course allowed the Lincoln Track Club to create the half marathon.
“Other races have 10Ks associated to them, and they quickly became 300-pound gorillas,” Lewis said, noting the shorter race overshadowed the marathon.
“I wanted to keep the Lincoln Marathon a distance event, so I argued for a half marathon. It may not be a marathon, but it’s still a pretty substantial race.”
But now, with entries topping 5,000 for the second straight year, organizers are looking to tweak the course again.
The narrow bike path on Nebraska 2 between 48th and 20th streets is the problem area. Sutton said organizers are looking at options, including permission to run on the highway. The city also has indicated it plans to widen the bike path.
“We recertify every 10 years, and we’re due to do it again in about two years,” Sutton said. “If we want to change it, we probably would do it then.”
The race also has outgrown its pastathon and runner’s expo. Sutton said organizers are looking into alternative sites.
“We’re outgrowing everything,” Sutton said. “Never in our wildest dreams did I think we would get this big. I can’t believe how much it’s grown.”
Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.
Post Your Comment
Standards and RulesYour posted comment will appear after it has been approved.
Frequently asked questions about story commenting.
J.B. wrote on May 1, 2008 4:00 pm:
Collector wrote on May 2, 2008 10:01 am:
Carol - Northeast Nebraska wrote on May 2, 2008 10:20 am: