Organizers expect close to 7500 to sign up.
Frederick, Md (KM). There has been a lot of interest in this year’s 2017 Frederick Running Festival, according to organizers. Lee Corrigan, the President of Corrigan Sports Enterprises, which puts on the event, says runners from 31 states, the District of Columbia and three foreign countries are expected to show up. “It’s grows every year, and this year’s no different. We’re up 9% right now,” he says. “We’ll be in the neighborhood of somewhere between 7500 to 8,000 runners before all is said and done.”
The Frederick Running Festival will take place during the weekend of May 6th and 7th. On Saturday, May 6th, there will be the Kids Fun Run and the Twilight 5-K. The Half Marathon begins at 7:00 AM on Sunday, May 7th.
This is the 15th year of Running Festival.
The 13-mile, half-marathon course starts in front of the Fairgrounds on East Patrick Street. It travels past Harry Grove Stadium, through downtown Frederick and the Hood College campus, and then through the eastern half of the city before runners reach the finish line in front of the Grandstands at the Frederick Fairgrounds. “We’ve tinkered with the route from year to year as everybody knows. This is the first year ever we’ve had the exact same route,” says Corrigan.
In the past, participants got to run in a marathon, which is just over 26-miles long. Corrigan says that could come back in future years. “We really need to see a couple of different roads and connectors come into Frederick to make that possible without making it dangerous–i.e. running on 144, which we thought was dangerous–and also the second half happened to be very, very hilly the way we had it before,” he says.
Despite the strong interest in the half-marathon, Corrigan says there’s still plenty of time for those who are interested to sign up. “People are registering on a daily basis by the hundreds. So you’re not too late,” he says. Go to www.frederickrunfest.com for more information.
By Kevin McManus