Chamber ends marathon after 13 years

The 2015 Maryville Marathon & Chamber Country Classic was the last in the event’s 13-year history, Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jordyn Swalley has announced. The departure of Matt Gaarder as marathon director and questions about both the route and the event’s overall economic impact led chamber officials to decide it was time to move the annual distance race across the finish line.

After 13 years, the Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce is pulling the plug on the Chamber Country Classic Marathon.

Chamber Executive Jordyn Swalley said Tuesday that a number of circumstances conspired to make last summer’s 26-mile footrace, which also included a half-marathon and 5- and 10-K events, the final competition.

Probably the biggest factor in the marathon’s demise was the decision by local businessman Matt Gaarder to step down as the event’s main organizer.

Gaarder, who owns Rapid Elite, a downtown ink and toner business that recently expanded into retail printing, copying, and shipping, has been the race’s leading spirit since it was founded back in 2003.

But, Swalley said, with his business expanding and new responsibilities as president of the Maryville Downtown Improvement Organization, Gaarder has decided it is time to move on to other things.

“Matt has just been busy all around, and wouldn’t have been able to commit to being the race director,” she said.

But aside from losing its prime mover, Swalley said the race faced other challenges as well.

First of all, the event was due for recertification by USA Track & Field in 2016, a designation that made those finishing the event eligible for such hallmark races as those held in Boston, Massachusetts.

While recertification itself was not a deal-breaker, Swalley said the chamber didn’t want to commit to USATF for another 10 years using the marathon’s current route, a 13-mile double loop that included a good portion of the Highway 71 bypass.

Runners were not fond of the bypass portion of the race, she said, and a number had expressed special displeasure over the years about having to run along the highway twice.

It had long been the goal of organizers to change the route to include Mozingo Lake Recreation Park. But Swalley said that would have entailed closing a lane of Highway 136 for the duration of the race, something that the Missouri Department of Transportation was not willing to sign off on.

Finally, questions have surfaced about the marathon’s economic impact, and even its viability.

Last year’s race lost money, Swalley said. But more to the point, participant surveys showed that many runners who came to town to compete were leaving Maryville without shopping, eating out, or checking into a hotel for the night.

Since the whole idea was to attract out-of-town visitors who would patronize local businesses, Swalley and others began wondering if the marathon’s reason for being was valid.

“We knew something would have had to change,” she said.

Finally, one of the event’s main attractions to runners were its low registration fees — less than $60 depending on the event.

Higher fees were likely needed to make the event sustainable, Swalley said, but it was feared increases would reduce the number of participants, usually around 150 or so, entering the race.

With the prospect of fewer runners and an even smaller economic impact on local businesses, Swalley said it became clear the time had come to call a halt.

In the race’s stead, she said, the chamber hopes to create a new event, perhaps a festival of some sort, that would embrace a variety of activities and last more than one day.

Nothing is on the table yet, and Swalley said there will be no replacement event for the marathon until at least 2017. In the meantime, the organization hopes to provide more activities targeted specifically at chamber members, such as speakers and workshops.

Also, a committee tasked with studying the possibility of a replacement event is to be formed after the first of the year.

“It’s going to take a lot of community effort and a lot or organization to make sure we do it right,” Swalley said.