Participants Will Run Into Changes At Philadelphia Marathon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia officials have made a number of changes to the annual Philadelphia Marathon, which gets underway Saturday morning.
Perhaps the biggest change is splitting the half and full marathons into separate days. Race director Jim Marino says they want to reduce congestion and allow the runners to have their own, unique racing experience:
"The idea is to let both events grow by having them on separate days. They're both going to be allowed to grow and it won't be elbow to elbow for the first 12-13 miles."
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Organizers have also made the half marathon course a lot more challenging.
"They gotta run some hills out in the park as compared to running on the flat streets inside the Center City area," explains Marino. "When they see the park and see the mansions that we have and some of the other historical things that we have up in Fairmount Park, the out-of-towners are really going to take notice of it and the locals are going to say 'why didn't I know about this'?"
Other changes include the finish line, which is being moved to the north side of Eakins Oval. And shuttle buses will be offered to the runners from their hotels to the racing venue and then back to the hotels after the races are over.
Nearly 30,000 runners have registered for this year's races.
