The Lincoln Marathon is a hallmark event for our capital city. Each year, thousands of runners make a pilgrimage to the starting gates of the race at Memorial Stadium for the half or full marathon. Then, they’re off for a 13 or 26 mile tour of Lincoln with only their feet and the support of great volunteers to guide them home.
The event gives Lincoln great national exposure because runners know our course is world class, the atmosphere is fun, and it serves as a qualifying race for even bigger venues like the New York City and Boston marathons.
It’s also a huge economic driver for the community. Race organizers estimate 66 percent of the runners are from outside of Lancaster County and 14 percent of those runners come from outside of Nebraska. Most of the runners who travel from outside of the area come in the night before and patronize our hotels, restaurants, and retail locations. In many cases they stay for the entire weekend.
For year, race organizers have had plans to expand the race. Today, the size of the course requires that registrations are capped at 10,000 entries. The race sells-out in days, if not hours. Race organizers tell us they would like to grow the race to 15,000 runners or more in the next ten years. The problem is that parts of the course are simply not big enough to handle that many runners.
That’s why I want to thank the Lancaster County Visitor’s Promotion Committee and the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners for having the vision to invest $300,000 of county lodging tax dollars into growing the marathon. With the donation, the Helen Boosalis trail can be widened to allow more runners to participate in the race.
The funds would come from lodging taxes paid by people who stay in hotels and motels in Lancaster County. The Lancaster County Visitor’s Promotion Committee (members are from the hotel, retail, and attraction industry) makes recommendations to the county board on how to spend the money and ultimately, the board of commissioners makes the final decision on where the money goes.
The county board gave initial approval during an informal presentation on the project in February. We expect them to give formal approval during a board of commissioners meeting this summer.
Clearly it’s an investment that will more than pay for itself over time and a wise move to grow one of the city, county, and state’s signature events.
The Chamber’s mission is to improve the lives of Lincoln residents by providing increased economic opportunity and can only be accomplished together. Networking opportunities, business advocacy, and creating economic viability are critical to our success. We encourage you to become a member and help us achieve these goals for Lincoln. For more information, please contact Paul 436-2350.
by Wendy Birdsall, President
Lincoln Chamber of Commerce
402-436-2350
www.lcoc.com