In the week leading up the the 2014 Columbus Marathon, Race Director Darris Blackford was facing 10 major things that were all going terribly wrong. In the years that he has been the race director, it was the first time he had to deal with so many crises that close to race weekend.

In this episode of the WALK Magazine Podcast, I talk with Darris about the issues he faced in that week, including the expectation that the finisher medals would not arrive in time.

We also talk about the marathon Board’s decision to change the length of time the race course is open from 7 hours to only 6 hours in 2015 and how that will affect marathon walkers. The half marathon will remain open 3.5 hours.

In this Episode

• Why were the finisher medals held up?
• How and when the medals finally arrived in Columbus.
• About 16,000 athletes finished the event.
• About 2,000 finishers were affected by the medal delay.
• How did participants respond?
• Where the medals are manufactured and why.
• Why the race is shortening the length of time the course is open.
• Community response to the Marathon.
• Remember when walkers started an hour early? (I was Walking Director of the Marathon back then.)
• Fewer than 200 of the athletes who finished the 2014 marathon took more than 6 hours.
• Other marathons, including Chicago and Twin Cities, have a 6-hour time limit.
• Columbus is a great market for races.
• 1,000 spots are being added to the half marathon for 2015.
• Corrals will be handled differently to ease crowding.
• 35% of participants responded to the after-race survey! (4% is considered a good response.)
• Respondents made 10,000 additional comments.

For more information about the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Marathon go to the website www.columbusmarathon.com/ or Facebook www.facebook.com/ColumbusMarathon.

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