2022 Missoula Marathon to return, boosting tourism

June's arrival means the iconic Missoula Marathon's return is less than a month away. 

The marathon will return for the first time in three years, a big deal for not only the running community but for all of Missoula. 

As of June 1, there are only nine hotel properties left with rooms available for marathon weekend June 24-26, and most are priced at more than $700 per night. 

According to race organizers, there's a lot of excitement for the race to come back. 

The marathon sold out in January, which is unprecedented. While organizers capped the races to 1,000 marathon runners and 3,000 half marathon runners because of construction and unknowns with the pandemic, they're still expecting it to impact all of Missoula. 

“I think just bringing those dollars back to the community, the downtown community especially, hotels, restaurants, retail, all of that, it’s so important," Trisha Drobeck, marathon director, said. "I think everybody’s going to be just so excited to have them.” 

Over at Destination Missoula, they said it's the largest event held in town over the summer.

The pandemic showed just how much the town's driven by events, so they're celebrating its return. 

“It’s kind of like when we have Cat-Griz games… or something like that," Barb Neilan, the executive director, said. "There are times when we’ve had those higher numbers, where we’ve funneled people down into Hamilton and up to Polson and places like that to find a place to stay.”

The marathon is set for Sunday, June 26 at 6 a.m., but organizers say to expect downtown to be busy for the entire week leading up to it. 

During this final stretch, the marathon is still in need of volunteers. 

It takes a total of about 800 volunteers to pull this off, from cleaning up the course, to giving out water and medals.

posted Saturday June 4th
by Maria Anderson