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Road work cancels beaches marathon

Organizers of the Florida Gulf Beaches Marathon will instead stage a half-marathon Jan. 22.

By SHANNON TAN
Published November 22, 2005

For four of the past six years, organizers of the Florida Gulf Beaches Marathon have battled road construction along the 26.2-mile course.

They always managed to find an alternate route for the hundreds of runners.

Not this year.

Organizers canceled the Jan. 22 marathon because of upcoming road construction on Gulf Boulevard in Indian Shores, the narrowest part of the course. The construction would leave just one lane of traffic open, said race director Chris Lauber.

Lauber said the undergrounding of utilities and reclaimed water projects would be taking place around the same time. "We didn't want to take a chance," he said.

Instead of the marathon, the group will stage an inaugural Clearwater Halfathon on Jan. 22.

The 13.1-mile course will start on Clearwater's waterfront, head north and east on the Drew Street Extension, south on Osceola, and west over the Clearwater Memorial Causeway bridge to Clearwater Beach, over the Clearwater Pass Bridge to the Belleair Beach city limits before returning to downtown Clearwater.

The fourth annual Florida Gulf Beaches Halfathon, scheduled for Dec. 11, will not be affected.

The Clearwater Halfathon will be incorporated into future marathon weekends to encourage greater total participation each year, Lauber said. The Gulf Beaches Marathon is expected to be back in 2007.

Runners who have already registered for the marathon will be fully refunded.

"From an administrative point of view, this is a nightmare," Lauber said.

The seventh annual Florida Gulf Beaches Marathon was supposed to take runners from downtown Clearwater, over the Clearwater Memorial Causeway, past the mansions of Belleair Beach and Belleair Shore, through Indian Rocks Beach and along the Pinellas Trail.

Last year's marathon drew about 700 to 800 runners, Lauber said. Runners typically hail from more than 40 states and 10 different countries, and the event has had an estimated total economic impact of $3-million, he said.

The event has garnered four out of five stars for course and organization on marathonguide.com, a Web site where runners share comments about events.

Some runners have already e-mailed Lauber saying they plan to run in the Clearwater Halfathon. Others have had to cancel airline and hotel reservations. Several requested a refund in the form of a credit for future events.

"It's unfortunate because this event has a tremendous amount of potential," Lauber said.

[Last modified November 22, 2005, 02:15:27]