PARKS

courses don’t actually take runners through National Park Service land. The goal of the park service is preservation, so approval for large events like these is rare — but the beauty of these regions doesn’t end right at the park’s border. Plus, a major selling point of these races is that before and after the actual event, runners are right there to explore the parks.

Salem Stanley, founder of St. George, Utah-based Vacation Races, is not actually an endurance runner himself. Looking to run his own business after graduating from an MBA program, he came across the concept of destination races. “The whole concept of traveling and building a vacation around a race was still relatively new,” Stanley says, and in his research, he found that demand was quite high.

Stanley grew up in St. George, with Zion National Park as his backyard, so marrying long-distance running events with these natural wonders seemed like a logical choice. In 2012, the Zion Half Marathon launched with 500 participants. This year’s event attracted 2,600.

The idea clearly appeals to runners, both experienced and inexperienced. The races at Zion and Yosemite usually sell out within a matter of days. Each year, the company has added at least two new events to its roster. This year that includes races at Glacier National Park in Montana and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

Although Stanley is not a runner, there is something about the impact of half-marathons on participants’ lives that inspires him.

“It’s sort of a whole life experience concentrated in a couple of hours,” he said. “I’m getting goose bumps right now even talking about it. I just love that, and being able to provide that for people … it’s almost sacred. It’s such a personal experience.”