By Manu Ferreira
The Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon will be different this year. The event’s organizers announced that its 26.2-mile run was canceled. The competition is part of the traditional race weekend that will happen between April 28th and 30th.
The official announcement was made through posts on the Illinois Marathon’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Runners that had registered for the race were also contacted by email.
According to director Jan Seeley, the full marathon won’t take place due to impacts of the ongoing pandemic, which includes limitations on public safety resources.
Champaign Police Department is currently down on 26 officers from its authorized maximum, while the Urbana Police Department is down on about two. That means the ability to provide enough security for participants in the longer race through both cities was at risk.
“We need to be able to have a safe route for everybody. Looking at the existing resources to do that, we felt the new smaller footprint was the right direction to go,” Seeley said. “The marathon route was too big.”
However, all the other event races will take off. People can sign up for the Half-marathon, Marathon Relay, 5K and 10K, Green Street Mile, and Youth run. The announcement also included a few changes to the schedule.
The half marathon, relay, and 10K will take place on Saturday, April 30th, on a new route. They also have a new start time at 7:33 am.
The Green Street Mile will happen on Friday, April 29th, instead of Thursday, April 28th. It is going to start before the 5K run, at 6:10 p.m. on First Street.
The 5K remains as planned, starting at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 29th.
Triple Half-I and Triple Mini-I Challengers will have two races on Friday.
The Youth Run will start at Noon on Saturday, April 30th, instead of at 3:00 p.m., inside Memorial Stadium.
For other details and registration, visit the website www.illinoismarathon.com.
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