Running News Daily

Bend Marathon has been cancelled for the second consecutive year

Of all the sporting events that have been canceled over the past year in Central Oregon, perhaps none has endured worse luck than the Bend Marathon.

The event — which was scheduled for April 18 and includes a marathon, half marathon, 10-kilometer, and 5K race on roads and paved trails throughout Bend — has been canceled for the second consecutive year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the first major events to be canceled in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, the sixth edition of the in-person Bend Marathon will now be pushed back to 2022.

At last week’s Bend City Council meeting, councilors were unable to come to an agreement on issuing the Bend Marathon a special event permit.

Of all the sporting events that have been cancelled over the past year in Central Oregon, perhaps none has endured worse luck than the Bend Marathon.

The event — which was scheduled for April 18 and includes a marathon, half marathon, 10-kilometer, and 5K race on roads and paved trails throughout Bend — has been canceled for the second consecutive year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the first major events to be canceled in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, the sixth edition of the in-person Bend Marathon will now be pushed back to 2022.

At last week’s Bend City Council meeting, councilors were unable to come to an agreement on issuing the Bend Marathon a special event permit.

Marathon organizers Max King and Kari Strang had submitted a proposal that featured several safety protocols, including wave starts of no more than 75 runners, which would adhere to state and county guidelines for outdoor gatherings.

“They didn’t want to risk it,” a disappointed King said. “The spirit of the guidelines are that you don’t get that many people together, and we weren’t getting that many people together.”

King said he was expecting a total of about 900 runners across the four races. About 600 had registered before the event was canceled. In 2019 more than 2,400 runners and walkers participated in the Bend Marathon’s events.

The Bend Marathon course was to feature Bend parks, neighborhoods and the new paved trail through the Deschutes National Forest (paralleling the Cascade Lakes Highway).

King called it bad timing for the popular event.

“We obviously don’t want to spread the disease, and that is what people are risk adverse to,” King said. “When we look at other things that are already happening in the community, such as Mt. Bachelor, restaurants and retail being open, and the lack of spread in outdoor events and the risk being really, really low, I don’t agree with where they’re coming from.”

King and Strang were also planning to decrease aid stations, require masks at the start and finish, and not allow spectators.

The 2021 Bend Marathon will still offer a virtual option, as it did last year. Participants can run their distance wherever and however they want from April 12 to May 25, and then upload their finishing time to bend-marathon.com.

“We want to hype it up and make it fun for people,” King said. “We don’t want it to be just an afterthought. We’ll do some fun events around the race time and some fun videos about training.”

And for now, the plan is certainly for an in-person Bend Marathon in 2022.

(03/09/2021) Views: 1,238 ⚡AMP
by Mark Morical

Zachary Boyd-Helm running his first marathon wins in Bend Oregon

Zachary Boyd-Helm, a former distance runner at West Linn High and then Southern Oregon University, said he just wanted to see what a marathon felt like.

The 26-year-old did much more, winning the marathon portion of the Bend Marathon and Half Saturday morning in 2:42:58.

“I completely exceeded my goal, which I’m super excited about,” said Boyd-Helm, who wanted to break 2:45 but would have settled for anything under three hours.

A steady rain fell as marathoners started the race at 7 a.m. behind the Les Schwab Amphitheater stage, which also served as the finish line for the event’s four races.

But the rain stopped by the time Boyd-Helm, now a graduate student at SOU, crossed the finish line.

“It’s such a beautiful course with all the rolling hills,” he said. “There’s people at every single point so I never felt like I was completely by myself. This was a really fun marathon. It definitely makes me want to do more.”

William Miles, of Happy Valley, finished second in the marathon in 2:46:15, and Jordan Tait, of Kuna, Idaho, placed third in 2:51.59.

Bend’s Lindsey Hagen, 35, was the top female, finishing fourth overall in 2:57.33.

Originally from Santa Cruz, California, Hagen said she has completed about 30 marathons in her life, but it was her first time running the Bend Marathon after moving to Central Oregon more than three years ago to work at Rebound Physical Therapy, a sponsor of the marathon.

Hagen, an ultra runner, said she used the marathon to train for next month’s Smith Rock 50K. She also plans to do 100K and 100-mile races this summer.

“It was probably slower than I could do normally because of the hills but I felt good and raced hard,” Hagen said of the Bend Marathon.

Alaini Ritsch, of Fort Collins, Colorado, was the second female to finish the marathon, placing sixth overall in 3:02.30.

Ryan Lok, of Oakland, California, won the half marathon in 1:12.09. Brett Holts (Lake Oswego) and Adrian Shipley (Forest Grove) took second and third in 1:14.03 and 1:18.20, respectively.

The top female in the half marathon was Forest Grove’s Laura Lewis, who finished 18th overall in 1:29.49.

Portland’s David Hamilton won the 10K in 35.58. Stephen Bauer, of San Francisco, placed second in 38.03.

Portland’s Angharad Porteous, the top female, finished third overall in 39:18. Bend’s Katie Grissen was the second female to cross the finish line, placing fourth overall in 40:15.

Hunter Hurl, a 10-year-old from McMinnville, finished fifth in 40:18.

Bend runners dominated the 5K. Jason Colquhoun and Ron Deems, both of Bend, placed first and second in 18:26 and 19:29, respectively.

Bend 10-year-old Lauren Willard finished third in 19:42. She was followed by 12-year-old Kyle Kirsch in 20:20 and 10-year-old Skye Knox in 20:39.

More than 2,400 runners and walkers participated in the fifth annual event, which also included a kids’ run.

(04/21/2019) Views: 2,312 ⚡AMP