SLO Marathon canceled this spring after eight years running
After eight years, the San Luis Obispo Marathon & Half Marathon event has been canceled. The event had been planned for April 26, 2020.
Samatha Pruitt, CEO and founder of RaceSLO, cited significant planning and financial hurdles in holding the event her company has hosted since 2011.
“My heart is heavy, not just for our company and my team but for the over 35,000 nationwide athletes, local sponsors, local vendors and suppliers, volunteers and beneficiaries who are all losing something they also hold dear,” Pruitt said in a statement. “Though we have had our share of uphill obstacles, we always continued to work diligently with our community partners to overcome them.”
Pruitt said RaceSLO is looking for a new home elsewhere in the county for spring 2021.
SLO Marathon has been major draw to city
The SLO Marathon & Half Marathon annually attracted anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 athlete guests and an additional 6,500 to 8,000 spectators, along with $2.44 million in economic impact countywide, Pruitt said.
Last year, the event only included a half marathon, due to a low volume of entries for the longer race and the high costs associated with staging it, Pruitt told The Tribune last year.
This year’s planning difficulties included a decision by Madonna Inn not to renew a contract as the long-term race venue.
Pruitt said she worked with the city of SLO to set up a new venue location across town, but “unfortunately, (SLO) could not commit to a specific race course and could not grant a long-term/multi-year commitment to the venue or the event date, which made future planning and stability of the event difficult to manage.”
“They offered us Damon Garcia Sports Fields if we moved the date and put a new course together,” Pruitt said. “We said yes. But they would not commit to more than a one-year agreement to the race staying there or to the race course we created.”
In response, SLO City Manager Derek Johnson told The Tribune by email that city officials tried to facilitate a successful event “while at the same time ensuring that we treat the SLO Half Marathon in an equitable manner as we would with any other event in the city.”
Johnson said the city’s efforts included:
▪ A multi-year commitment at alternative city-owned venue that wasn’t accepted by event organizer.
▪ Consistent financial support for last nine years.
▪ Coordinated efforts to connect with potential partners to resolve outstanding issues.
“Using city streets comes with risks that we have an obligation to manage and with that comes costs, and we would welcome this event back to San Luis Obispo should the organizers reconsider their decision,” Johnson said.
Hosting a marathon is costly
Pruitt said the cost is around $250,000, and the race relies on sponsorship, volunteers and partnerships to put it on — thus depending on adequate support, which she felt wasn’t available this year.
“After two years of steadily increasing traffic control and course permit costs, the race faced too many hurdles out of the organizers’ control,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt said a competing event also has presented a challenge for her planning.
A 13-mile “Beast” race with 30 obstacles through mud and wilderness, hosted by Spartan, a national race coordinator, will be held on March 14-15 in Santa Margarita. That event also includes a kids’ race and other types of events.
Pruitt said the Spartan Race is being sponsored by the SLO County tourism marketing organization, Visit SLO CAL. Pruitt said she reached out to Visit SLO CAL seeking financial support for the event, but was unsuccessful.
Visit SLO CAL said in an email to The Tribune that it wishes it could fund all requests for sponsorship, but it has to be selective in aligning support with its vision.
“Visit SLO CAL’s current focus is on supporting events that attract visitors, provide significant exposure for the destination and align with our brand and lifestyle, such as our previous partnership with AMGEN,” Chuck Davison, president and CEO of Visit SLO CAL, said in a statement. “The Spartan Race is a well-known brand, has an engaged, national audience and is estimated to bring 3,500 people to SLO CAL from more than 200 miles away, making it firmly aligned with Visit SLO CAL’s mission and objectives.”
Johnson said in a statement that “we recognize the changing preferences from race participants.”
Pruitt said the company’s mission will be to continue to “use endurance sports and human experiences to create social and economic impact.”
“The loyalty of our local business sponsors, suppliers, volunteers and athlete customers mean the world to us, and for them, we will proudly forge onward and upward in a new location,” Pruitt said.
This article was updated to clarify the Spartan race details.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 4:45 AM.
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