Marathon makes return to Palm Beaches after 2 years
After a two-year hiatus, the Palm Beaches Marathon returns to the waterfront next weekend with a new course, along with a half-marathon, 5k, fireworks and features focused on health and fitness.
The main event, the Fitteam Palm Beaches Marathon, starts at 6 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 3, on Flagler Drive near Clematis Street. But there’ll be a number of events leading up to it and two nights of fireworks to ignite the weekend.
According to Gary Ferman of Specialty Sports, the Bill Bone 5K on Friday at 6:30 p.m., will serve as a warm-up event for walkers and runners, with the city’s brightly illuminated Sandi, the towering holiday tree of sand, as the backdrop.
Before the 5k, from noon to 6 p.m. Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, the Health and Fitness Expo at CityPlace will feature wellness products and services, running apparel and race information.
FPL is sponsoring a concert starting at 5 p.m. Saturday as a thank-you to Hurricane Irma first responders. The concert, in the Meyer Amphitheatre, will feature rock band Sister Hazel.
On the morning of Dec. 3, the marathon and half-marathon start with a loop around downtown.
The Palm Beach Town Council recently approved the running of an early leg of the course through the town, the first time in the history of the event that the sweaty masses will be permitted to cross the Intracoastal Waterway. So just before the third mile, runners will cross the Flagler Memorial Bridge into Palm Beach, then head south, partly along the Lake Trail, and come back downtown on the Royal Park Bridge.
Back in West Palm, they’ll take North Flagler Drive all the way through the North End to the Manatee Lagoon. Then they swing south for 11 miles to 10th Avenue North in Lake Worth and back north again into downtown West Palm Beach.
Charities and homeowner groups will distract from the exhaustion by hosting 16 themed “Wacky Water Stations” along the way. They’ll get $200 toward their charity and the winning water station will receive a $1,000 prize.
One way to run in the marathon without running a marathon is to join its Relay Division. Four-person relay teams can join, with team members running legs of 5, 7, 8 and then 6 miles.
The organizers also are looking for nonrunners to serve as volunteers. Anyone interested can email igrady@palmbeaches.org.
After Life Time Fitness said in 2016 it would no longer operate the Eau Palm Beach Marathon & Run Fest, the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches exercised a contract clause to regain rights to the race, at a nominal cost. Ken Kennerly’s K2 Sports Ventures bought the race and brought in Fitteam as the name sponsor. Kennerly is executive director of the Honda Classic PGA golf tournament in Palm Beach Gardens.
“We are creating one of the premier running experiences in the world,” Kennerly said.