Rebecca Ezrin
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The annual San Luis Obispo Marathon kicked off on Saturday morning and drew over 4,000 participants throughout its two-day event.
Presented by Left Lane Sports, festivities of the event included a children’s mile-run, a 5K run, family fitness activities, a children’s quarter-mile dash, a half marathon and a full marathon.
The main festivities, the marathon and half marathon, occurred on Sunday. The marathon began at 6 a.m. and the half marathon began at 6:45 a.m., with both starting at the San Luis Obispo High School and ending at the Madonna Inn.
The marathon was started by Get Off The Couch Potato Sports Productions, also known as Race SLO, which produces two other annual events as well: Giro Della Costa Centrale, a cycling event, and the Central Coast Cancer Challenge, a running event that raises money for cancer-supporting charities.
“A few years ago, my business partner, Samantha, and I decided to do this Cancer Challenge. We raised over $10,000 for a few charities,” event directer Heather Hellman said. “And we produced that race for a couple of years, and then the city of San Luis Obispo approached us and asked us if we wanted to do a marathon. We started this race in 2012 and it was a breakout success and has been ever since,” Hellman said.
The San Luis Obispo Marathon is now the largest participatory sport in the county, with more athletes participating in the weekend-long of events than any other single sporting event.
“We’ve taken it to a place where the community can have pride in it, where it creates a really large economic impact. For the past three years, the economic impact has been ‘3 million plus.’ We’ve filled all the hotels, the restaurants have all the runners to eat there, they come and buy clothing here. I think the community is embracing it and seeing that it’s good for them,” said Hellman.
The participants in the marathon event include professionals, people who run as a hobby, as well as plenty of first-timers, too.
“Who participates in this event? The average Joe, who is willing to take on a big challenge and achieve a big goal,” race director Samantha Pruitt said.
All athletes began training within 12-20 weeks prior to the race.
Racers follow training programs using mcmillanrunning.com, which helps them with their exercise routine, diet and all the must-knows of how to train.
“I’m very flexible when training. I run by feel, so if I have a workout and don’t feel well, I cut it off. While running, you learn how to rest and recover, and you learn how to rebound and push through. You find the windows of when to push and when to rest,” previous marathon and half marathon winner Joe Thorne said.
Thorne won the San Luis Obispo Marathon in 2013, with a winning time of 2:37:00.
“My biggest piece of advice to anyone who’s about to run a marathon is to be patient with yourself, whether it’s in preparation or it’s race day. It’s a long way. There’s gonna be periods where you don’t feel well, and then there will be periods where you feel great, so you have to be patient and calm, because otherwise you won’t make it,” Thorne said.
Jorge Maravilla (37) of Mill Valley and Kimberly O’Donnell (25) of Walnut Creek were the overall male and female champions, respectively, of the 2015 San Luis Obispo Marathon.
Maravilla finished with the time of 2:26:50, breaking the course record by nearly eight minutes.
O’Donnell, a repeat winner, finished at 2:59:02, beating her previous record by five minutes.
This year’s marathon prize money increased, with first-place winners bringing home $600, second-place winners pocketing $300, and $150 to third-place winners.
For the second consecutive year, a husband-wife team has taken the winning spots in the half marathon event: Ben and Stephanie Bruce, both 32 years old, of Flagstaff, Arizona.
The half marathon winners took home $300 each, the second-place winners took home $150 each and the third-place winners, $75 each.
“To win any event is tremendous. You put in a lot of work toward it, and to get a result is really great,” Thorne said.
In addition to winning prize money, cow bells are traditionally given out as trophies to race winners.
Funding for the event comes from the sponsorships of many different companies, including Cal Poly.
The earnings from the San Luis Obispo Marathon go to Get Off Your Couch Potato Sports Productions, which donates monetarily to charities Team In Training and Challenged Athletes Foundation.
The San Luis Obispo Marathon had over 900 volunteers participating in order to take all the necessary roles in running the event.
“It takes a community and a village to run the event, and a lot of the volunteers come from Cal Poly. The greek Life, clubs … It’s all been very helpful,” Hellman said.
The 2016 San Luis Obispo Marathon will mark the races’ five-year anniversary and the planning for the event is already in action.
“It’s about helping people achieve their goals. We get a lot of satisfaction and gratification out of that,” Hellman said.