Amanda Zhorne doesn’t consider herself a runner these days, but she loved the first Cedar Rapids Marathon earlier this month.
“It’s been a while since I’ve used running shoes for anything other than working in a kitchen,” Ms. Zhorne said.
But as co-owner of Craft’d Coffee Shop in downtown Cedar Rapids, she’s become a “big fan” of the inaugural race and hopes for more events like it.
“Let’s do a marathon every weekend,” she said with a laugh. “Excited that it sounds like they’ll do it again.”
Registration already is open for the second Cedar Rapids Marathon next year, which will move to April. By all accounts, the first-year event was a big hit for the city, several downtown businesses and others along the 26.2-mile race route.
“I don’t think we could have been happier with how it went,” race director Jake Jass said. “It went exceptionally well.”
Caleb Knutson, executive director of Downtown Cedar Rapids, said race weekend drew more than 5,000 people to Kingston Yard on race day and the “overall downtown SSMID was over 18,000 people.”
“It was pretty fantastic,” Mr. Knutson said. “I think the best word to describe the race day was ‘phenomenal.’”
The races drew more than 3,000 runners – the initial goal was 1,500 – including “just shy of a 1,000” in the marathon. There were another 1,300 in the half-marathon, 264 in the 10K and around 400 in the 5K.
“We’re thrilled and we’re already making adjustments for next year,” said Mr. Jass, who, along with his wife Laura, own Endurance Sports Marketing, which owns and operates several events, including the Cedar Rapids Marathon and the Des Moines Marathon. “So yeah, we’re really excited.”
They weren’t alone. Jim Dwyer, co-owner of Iowa Running Company in the New Bo District and race director for the July 4 Fifth Season Races in Cedar Rapids, said his business was brisk and folks lined the street by his store to cheer on runners.
An editorial in The Gazette noted the city “needs an event like this.”
“In a city that has tried to create events that would market Cedar Rapids’ brand and bring visitors (with the one spectacular failure of Newbo Evolve), Sunday’s marathon weekend has all the makings of a defining event for Cedar Rapids,” the editorial said. “It’s an event that will grow organically each year, as Cedar Rapids puts its best face forward, as it did this past weekend. The city likely created plenty of new fans among the thousands of runners from across the country and around the world.”
“We always hope events like that move the needle, everything that we do for downtown,” Mr. Knutson said. “… I mean, there were just people everywhere and the energy was there.
“There’s always things that we can learn … You know, nothing’s ever going to be perfect,” he added. “But, you know, for a first-time event, having this many athletes in town. … I heard there were runners from all 50 states, four different countries were represented. That says Cedar Rapids can draw people, we can get people in here. We can show them what we have to offer.”
Ms. Zhorne, also a community development specialist with the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, said other than catering opportunities, marathon day was her best ever for pure coffee sales.
“Obviously the race started in the morning, early morning, which is helpful to us, so I don’t think it was just runners,” she said. “I think it was family members that were going to be cheering them on, other spectators … it was the perfect timing for our particular business.
“It brought so many people downtown, which is good for all of us down there … the more people that spend time downtown, fall in love with our downtown, the better off we are going forward.”
The weather also cooperated, for the most part. Mr. Jass said he was constantly checking radar for rain and storms.
“It literally just, like, went around us, but we did get rained on for, I don’t know, maybe 20 minutes,” he said. “We had a storm hit like right at 2 (p.m.) at the finish. But by that time, the race was 99% done, and unfortunately we had to call off the last tiny little bit.
“We got incredibly fortunate with the weather.”
Weather is one reason the race will move to April 25, 2027. June can be unpredictable with storms and humidity.
“Better weather,” Laura Jass wrote in a text when asked why the marathon date was moving.
She also said the “medical team” recommended the move and “we think it’s the only way to continue to grow the full distance.”
While tweaks are inevitable in an event of this magnitude, the response has “been overwhelmingly positive, more so than I expected,” Mr. Jass said.
The marathon course, for instance, likely will get a refresh.
“There’s definitely some things that we can improve upon course-wise,” he said. “I think we heard a lot of feedback from marathoners as far as their last out and back on Old River Road, that that was kind of a tough stretch and very isolated. So putting some more activities and entertainment on there, which we can absolutely do.
“It’s more of just kind of fine-tuning what’s already there.”
Since the race is a Boston Marathon qualifier, it will have to be re-certified.
“That’s a pretty common thing,” Mr. Jass said. “I mean, even in Des Moines, I have to re-certify because construction pops up or … we have to adjust for a growth in runners.”
The Des Moines Marathon, which will celebrate its 25th running in October, grew by 40% last year. The Jasses expect similar growth in Cedar Rapids.
“I think it’ll grow,” Mr. Jass said. “Word of mouth, I think, will do us some favors. And then one thing, I think the 5K (and) 10K will double next year. … I think we’ll see growth in the full (and) the half as well. So, yeah, I anticipate this growing considerably year over year, as long as we keep doing our job.”
