Would you spend your hard-earned vacation days traveling to another city for a race?
I remember having this discussion with a former co-worker several years ago, who didn't understand why the focus of my long weekend in Asheville, North Carolina was a half-marathon.
"Who spends all that money to go run?" he asked me.
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Well, I do, I told him. What better way to tour a new place than by running many miles through it?
Turns out, I am not alone. Now that it's fall marathon season (October is the most popular month for marathons!), an estimated 75 percent of runners are traveling to marathons, said Jordi Lippe-McGraw, a contributor to Conde Nast Traveler. Call it the Runcation.
Just look at the Baltimore Marathon on Saturday, Oct. 15, which includes a 5K, half-marathon and marathon. An estimated 35 percent of the 25,000 runners come from out of state. All 50 states and 24 foreign countries are represented, according to Baltimore Running Festival staff.
“Our readers are really wanting to keep that active and healthy lifestyle that they have at home,” she said.
There are 151 full marathons in October, three times more than any month of the year, said Chris Heuisler, Westin Hotels and Resorts’ National Run Concierge.
Heuisler, who is a runner himself, said running a race in the fall is a reward for having trained through hot, humid summer weather (as any runner who lives and trains in Maryland knows!)
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He mentioned the Rock 'N Roll Marathon in Las Vegas-- which is actually on my race bucket list-- as being a particularly popular destination race. There are usually a bunch of runner couples who decide to run the race, then get married, or vice versa, he said. (I kinda wish my husband, whom I met at the gym when he was training for his first marathon, would have been on board with that!)
“You don’t go to run a fast time, you go to have a good time. There’s a difference,” Heuisler said. “It’s a party.”
Do you have any plans to travel to races this fall?
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