INDUSTRY NEWS - ATLANTA MARATHON & HALF-MARATHON BREAKS ENTRIES RECORD
By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission

The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half-Marathon, scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, has exceeded 10,000 entries for the first time in the event's 46-year history, organizers announced today.  A 20% surge in registrations for the half-marathon when compared to last year put the race over the 10,000 runner mark.

"The number of people taking on the challenge of long distance running events continues to increase nationally –especially at the half marathon distance," said Atlanta Track Club executive director Tracey Russel through a media release.  "With the help of The Weather Channel as the new title sponsor for the event, we've had the opportunity to be more aggressive with our marketing efforts and it certainly has paid off with our increased registration."

Along with Independence Day on July 4, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, is the most popular holiday in the United States for runners to enter races.  Hundreds of "turkey trots" are held throughout the country where runners hope to build up a calorie deficit before tucking into their traditional Thanksgiving feasts.  A small sample of races which reported finisher totals to Race Results Weekly last year showed nearly 92,000 finishers, but when less competitive races are factored in the total would be much higher.  The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half-Marathon is one of the largest Thanksgiving Day events, recording 6905 finishers last year (the largest is the Thanksgiving Day 10-K in Cincinnati which recorded 10,611 finishers last year).

The Atlanta Track Club has added wave starts this year to ease congestion at the starting line, and has also moved to a disposable timing chip, the ChronoTrack "D-Tag," replacing the reusable ChampionChip transponder most familiar to runners. 

Registration is still open at http://www.atlantatrackclub.org.

ENDS