Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon
| Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | San Diego |
| Event type | Road |
| Distance | Marathon and half marathon |
| Established | 1998 |
| Official site | San Diego Marathon |
The Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon is an annual marathon foot-race held in San Diego, California. It was established in 1998 and has been run every year since. It is the original race in the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series of marathons and half-marathons managed by Competitor Group, Inc.. A half marathon race over 21.0975 kilometres (13.1094 mi) was added to supplement the established full marathon race from the 2010 edition onwards.
The marathon originally commenced at 6th Avenue at Palm and concluded on Broadway Avenue downtown San Diego. The following year, the finish moved to the Naval Training Center, and three years later moved to to the Parade Deck in Marine Corps Recruit Depot. In 2010 a new course was defined which ended at Sea World San Diego. In 2013, the course was again rerouted with a new finish line at Petco Park. Runners have seven hours in which to complete the marathon. There is also a half-marathon over portions of the same course, and a four-person relay option with a four-hour time limit. Since its inception, the marathon claims to have raised in excess of $100 million for charities (but see below). The 2006 marathon had 21,159 participants—17,339 of whom successfully finished the race.
The half marathon aspect of the race has a men's course record of 58:41 minutes (set by Bernard Koech in 2013). This was the fourth-fastest time ever for the event, although the time did not meet official IAAF requirements as the course contained an excessive downhill.
In 2008 the Competitor Group took over Elite Racing, the company that had been organizing the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. The following year, 2009, an internal audit revealed that the charity in whose name the race had been run, Elite Racing Foundation for Children, Education & Medical Research, had been improperly commingling funds with the for-profit Elite Racing. It further found that the foundation was being operated "in many instances for the benefit of the for-profit,” and that the charity's role in hosting the races had been overstated. As a result, the race had benefited improperly from hundreds of thousands of dollars in public subsidies and grants. In announcing the results of the audit, Competitor said it would return $190,500 to San Diego County and $152,544 to the city of San Diego, spend the remaining foundation funds on health and wellness causes, file amended tax returns, and dissolve the foundation. Competitor Group made the final payments in October 2009. Altogether the company returned $344,176 to the city and county.
...
Wikipedia