Half Marathon Growth and Community

Half Marathons continue to grow across the USA and around the globe.  The current totals of half marathons in the USA equal well over 2000 events, with recent industry leaders’ claims of close to 2 million half marathon finishers over the past year. The number of half marathon events, and the number of finishers continue to increase annually.  The 13.1 mile distance is perfect for the traveler, allowing the ability to enjoy a weekend destination with little recovery time, contrary to the full marathon distance.

In 2008, Fifty States Half Marathon running club was founded, and has now grown to become a central bonding ground for bringing half marathon runners together from all over the USA, and even some from other countries. The club also has members from Canada, and as far away as UAE. The club features over 300 running event discounts (mostly half marathons), and a fabulous high end gold cup trophy for members who finish a 50 states journey, or 100 half marathons.  The challenges also allow for ironman distance and half ironman distance triathlons to count in totals of various challenges.  The 500 endurance challenge and a 7 Continents endurance Challenge was added as well over the past year, an enticer to go above and beyond 50 states or 100 halts.  Members meet up for dinner and race photos all over the USA throughout the year, and enjoy an unprecedented camaraderie!  The bonds of the members seem to get stronger every year, and more keep joining due to the positive energy the club and members spark amongst others!  The annual meet up and awards, which is held in a new destination every year, has also been an exciting event.  Members drive and fly in from all over to see one another, celebrate membership and awards for challenge finishers, and enjoy a weekend of socializing.  The half marathon club is a welcoming organization with both walkers and runners of all abilities, and is a fabulous running club to meet other likeminded individuals, from some just normal everyday folks, to some with amazing inspirational stories of overcoming adversity.

In 2015, Fifty 50 States Half Marathon Club will hold their annual meet up event at Kooky Spooky Half Marathon in Golden, Colorado, with expectations of close to 200 members attending.  The weekend will consist of a planned light group hike up the scenic Table Mountain, social night of mingling, a Coors Brewery tour, an evening of dinner and awards to be presented to all the 50 States and 100 Half finishers, a race day with mingling at post race tent upon finishing half the half marathon, and another final social gathering the last evening of the weekend.  Join the challenge and a great half marathon group!

Half Marathon Calendar is Getting Even Better

The Halfmarathonsearch.com Half Marathon Calendar is getting even better!

The new improved half marathon site is beginning to roll out.  Half marathon runners, check out the updated Half Marathon social site and half marathon calendar website.

http://www.halfmarathonsearch.com

2014 Half Marathons - Recommendations for Half Marathons to Improve Online Presence

The most up to date, complete and accurate listing of half marathons on the web is the Halfmarathonsearch.com half marathon calendar, featuring search by state and search by month capabilities for runners. The calendar also features a symbol for trail running half marathon events, and has been working on implementing walker friendly symbols throughout the calendar, which will continue to roll out through 2014. The walker friendly races adhere to the new standard in the half marathon industry, supporting a 4 hour / 18:32 minute mile minimum to be officially considered walker friendly.  The races must be fully supported the full minimum of 4 hours, including the same road support and aid station support that the fast runners receive, to be “official walker friendly”.

While there is still continued growth in half marathons across the USA, there were also a good number of half marathons that were cancelled, and some discontinued for 2014.  There are also still a fair amount of half marathons that fail to update their upcoming half marathon dates in an acceptable time frame prior to the race, however great improvements have been observed rolling into 2014.

Areas of which some half marathon race directors could improve with online presence (half marathon websites) are: 1) updating half marathon event dates close to a year ahead; 2) making sure the half marathon is listed on the home page if it is an addition to a marathon event; 3) listing the full date with the year fully visible, so runners and calendars can decipher if it is the old date or new date; 4) listing the “day” of the event is helpful (such as Saturday or Sunday); 5) Listing the city and state, clearly on the home page; 6) Listing an address to the event so out of state travelers can use GPS; 7) Submitting event date immediately to online half marathon calendars when date is identified; 8) Don’t change link annually, only change the information on the page (having ONE link or website that remains the SAME annually is important. 9) Clearly identify on home page if event is walker friendly of 4 hours or longer to finish; 10) Do not take your event page down when it is over, similar to #8, there is nothing worse than clicking on a site and no information exists any longer; 11) Make sure to have a link on website to Facebook page (make sure it’s a Facebook page and not a Facebook event, and not a Facebook group.  Races should have a Facebook PAGE to build community); 10) Support local and national running clubs such as Fifty States Half Marathon Club, that support the half marathon running community. It will go a long way having that camaraderie and support for your event. Providing a discount may draw in runners from out of state that may not otherwise have even seen or heard of your event, or considered traveling to your event.

Many races do not take into consideration details, especially for out of state runners and for walkers, and checking off the above list of items can improve presence, and draw in a bigger following of runners.