Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon: Registration open for 2012 – Athletics news
For long distance runners, Friday, July 1, was rather an important day as organisers of the Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon opened registrations for the 2012 edition of the event. The Illinois Marathon, which was initiated back in April 2009, is set to
offer a number of new race options to next year’s participants.
About one and a half year ago, the prestigious marathon was first organised in Champaign, Illinois. This was the first race ever to be held in Champaign, which witnessed a large number of participants as well as spectators. However, in order to make the
event a success and attract more top runners from around the globe, the course of the race was kept flat so that the runners could clock fast times on it.
The marathon, despite of enjoying an encouraging response from the elite field of the world, is still in its infancy stage. Therefore, to drive it towards ultimate success, Christie Clinic has agreed upon sponsoring the event for next five years. The major
races which are offered at the meet comprise of events like full Marathon (26.2 miles), half marathon (13.1 miles), four person marathon relay, a five km fun run, the one mile and half mile youth races.
Back in 2009, when the race commenced first, it was expected to attract about 10,000 runners, which, according to estimates, would gradually rise to 15,000-20,000 competitors in the initial five years. Although the event is a new meet, the Illinois run will
serve as a qualifier for the Boston Marathon.
An important feature of next year’s Marathon is that wave starts of half and full marathons relays are being instituted into it, which means that just like relay contests, there will be two groups of runners with a gap of several minutes between them.
By implementing this interesting idea, organisers of the event are expecting to attract not only a wide field, but also runners which will be more interested in experiencing this new format of the long distance race.
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