For those of you who may have missed the news about an upcoming marathon. . .

Thumbs Down. Town of Palm Beach rejects Palm Beaches Marathon this year, not “town-serving”.

But Thumbs Up for our
City of Lake Worth!

UPDATE! The blog post further down below is from last month. First, a special Thank You to everyone who got involved, contacting your elected officials, and making the case that the upcoming Palm Beaches Marathon needs to include more of our City of Lake Worth. Our City deserves a better seat at the table! We are not an afterthought and it looks as though that message was heard loud and clear.

The not-so-good news is the upcoming full marathon race will not quite make it to Lake Ave. or over the Robert Harris Bridge to the Lake Worth Casino. But this year’s race will make it to just a few blocks north of Lake Ave. into the Parrot Cove neighborhood before the turnaround.

Other neighborhoods included in the course this year:

• College Park neighborhood is first, just south of WPB.
• Next is Eden Place.
• Then Mango Groves (Parrot Cove abuts the Lake Worth municipal golf course; Mango Groves is to the west).*
  

The Palm Beaches Marathon 26.2 mile race is scheduled for Sunday, December 2nd (see map of last year’s race below; a big improvement this year). For the Palm Beaches Marathon event information click on this link (note that neither the half marathon, 10K, 5K will enter City of Lake Worth; only the full marathon on Dec. 2nd).

But keep the faith. Maybe that will happen next year.

Without further ado, the background for how we got to this point starting off with the news in the Palm Beach Daily News:


Last month organizers of this marathon had a glimmer of hope the Town of Palm Beach would allow the race to enter the town according to journalist William Kelly at The Shiny Sheet (see excerpt below). But those hopes were dashed on August 15th.

Here is the news from reporter Ian Cohen at the Palm Beach Daily News (aka, The Shiny Sheet), two excerpts:


     The Town Council on Wednesday [8/15] voted 4-1 to reject a permit request [emphasis added] by the marathon’s managing director, Kenneth Kennerly, to allow the annual race to run through about 1.2 miles of town.

and. . .

     “It’s the weekend after Thanksgiving. The president will be in town,” Moore [Council President Danielle Moore] said. “This would just be another piece of a very complicated weekend in Palm Beach. It causes me great consternation to think about the things that could possibly go wrong.”
     Other council members said the race would not be town-serving.
     “It’s not in the interest, I think, of our residents,” Lindsay [Councilwoman Bobbie Lindsay] said. “It’s a small town, it’s quiet, they’re here to have peace and quiet … it’s a drain on our police and also the rest of our staff.”


Our City of Lake Worth on December 3rd, 2017 was used as part of the Palm Beaches Marathon with runners racing through neighborhoods. Or come up with better route to show off our Downtown and attract more visitors and tourists? Fill up our restaurants and shops?

The Lake Worth Tropical Triathlon every year uses the Robert Harris (“Lake Worth”) Bridge and the Casino as part of the course for runners. So why can’t the organizers of the Palm Beaches Marathon find a route to include our Casino in this City?

The race in 2017 didn’t go anywhere near the Lake Worth Casino or even Bryant Park in the Downtown. It was sort of like the organizers tweaked the race to make it exactly 26.2 miles and that was our City’s only role. The stars of the show, of course, were the Town of Palm Beach and West Palm Beach last year.

From long-time reporter William Kelly at the Palm Beach Daily News (aka, the Shiny Sheet) is this recent news about that marathon datelined July 18th:


Deputy Town [of Palm Beach] Manager Jay Boodheshwar said marathon organizers must meet several conditions to receive a special event permit from the council that would allow bringing the marathon into town. Councilman Lew Crampton suggested last week that marathon organizers make a donation to the town in return for being able to bring the race here. [emphasis added]


About the race last year from the organizers of the Palm Beaches Marathon:


“We [2017 Palm Beaches Marathon] have worked to improve the course from previous years, in order to make the route the best and most scenic as possible. [emphasis added] The Marathon course will be a Boston Qualifier, and fast, flat and beautiful. For the first time in the event’s 14 year history we will be crossing into the Town of Palm Beach!”

Below is the Lake Worth leg of the
2017 full marathon race.

Click on image to enlarge:

Full marathon runners in 2017 entered the City, headed east on Duke Dr., then south on Lakeside Drive to 10th Ave. North. and then at the turn exiting the City on Federal Hwy.

In this year’s race runners will head seven blocks further south prior to the turnaround. To see the 2018 map of the full marathon race click on this link. In 2019? Further on to the Lake Worth Casino!

*There are a total of sixteen (16) neighborhoods in the Neighborhood Assoc. Presidents’ Council (NAPC). For the color-coded geographic information system (GIS) map of all neighborhoods click on this link.
     The NAPC is also on Facebook; to contact the NAPC send an email to: napcinfo@gmail.com

“Our Neighborhoods Have Boundaries.

Our Commitment To Each Other Does Not.”