A Big Year for the St. George Marathon

 
The St. George Marathon in St. George, Utah is well known for its beautiful, fast course through cedar forests, high desert vistas and red rock wonder.  Runner’s World has named it one of the four best marathons in the world around which to build a vacation, one of the top ten scenic marathon courses, and the fastest fall marathon.
 
Now the race has a new distinction. In the January issue of Runner’s World, the St. George Marathon was listed in the annual reader’s survey as America’s most organized marathon. The readers also ranked St. George #7 best overall.
 
 “We are so pleased for this high level of runner confidence”, says race director Kent Perkins, “Our goal is to insure that every runner in the race has an outstanding experience. We see this recognition as an opportunity to challenge ourselves to fine tune our organization to a greater degree.”
 
In April, the number of lottery entrants seeking one of 7,400 race numbers topped 11,000 for the first time. Perkins was asked why the race has a cap of 7400. “The hardest thing we do each year”, he says,” is turning away those 3600 + runners who want to get into our event. We decided many years ago that we would never grow beyond our ability to provide an outstanding experience for every participant. Because we must transport all runners to the start in a relatively short window of time we are constrained by the number of buses available in and around Washington County. However, as the area has grown, we have been able to increase the cap by 100 to 200 runners per year.”
 
“Of course there are many other elements that we take into consideration, all of which are key factors in providing the quality event expected by runners and staff.”
 
Another milestone of significance for the marathon relates to its most ardent supporters.  This year the Ten Year Club will top 1200 members. Of those runners 150 will reach the 20 year level and 16 will have finished for at least the 30^th time.
 
It has been a big year for the St. George Marathon. Race organizers look forward to October 2^nd when the Marathon celebrates its 34^th birthday, the best one yet.