Garmin Marathon in Olathe gets new course

Runners taking the marathon journey on this year’s Garmin Marathon today will get a new view. The annual Oz-themed race will travel on a different course than in previous years, going through parts of Olathe, Lenexa and Shawnee.

Previously, the race started and ended at Garmin headquarters in Olathe, but race organizers wanted to highlight the Olathe Hotel and Conference Center. Construction on the hotel finished in December, said Bubba Gaeddert, race director and manager of sports and events for the Olathe Chamber of Commerce.

“From a runner’s perspective, the benefit is that you’re not doing the same race over and over,” Gaeddert said. “Runners get to see new sights and get new elevations to test.”

The hotel venue also allowed race organizers to hold the registration material pick-up at the start line and provided space for an exposition featuring various vendors on Thursday and Friday. Gaeddert said the amount of parking available at the hotel was also helpful.

The Garmin Marathon is a major local race, not only for its reputation for runners having fun with Wizard of Oz-themed costumes but also because it’s certified as a qualifying run for larger races, such as the Boston Marathon.

Rob Bens designed this year’s route, with input from local authorities in Olathe’s public works department and police department.

“It comes down to what the city’s comfortable with, what their capabilities are for handling the event,” he said. “It sounds simple but it’s a pretty long process, coming up with the course and getting it certified. ... When you measure the course, you basically measure it backwards, then add or subtract parts of the route as needed to make our start line come out in a reasonable spot.”

USA Track & Field certifies the route so that runners with certain times can qualify for the larger races and so any record-breaking times will count as such.

“We have an Oz theme, (but) people forget that there’s a segment of the running group that’s competitive, and having a certified course is a big deal to them,” said Bens, who will miss this year’s Oz marathon because he will be traveling to run in Monday’s Boston Marathon.

Bens has been on the race committee for more than a decade. He came up with ideas for the course, then made some changes to accommodate how many roadways the cities involved could shut down for the day.

“(Olathe) was reluctant to protect more than 14 or 15 miles of the route, so we had to use the Mill Creek running trail,” Bens said. “I kind of like to have a mix; it’s nice we have that trail available. … When we moved the start and finish to its current location, we (also) wanted to be sure we ran by the Mahaffie Farmstead.”

In addition to the marathon, there will also be a half-marathon, a 10-kilometer race and a special race for kids called the Munchkin Marathon. The latter is a 1.2-mile finale run for kids who have run a total of 25 miles in the previous 16 weeks combined.

“There’s a fantastic atmosphere around the big race,” Bens said. “It’s nice to have shorter races like a 10K … It exposes everybody to different levels of runners.”

Gaeddert said about 3,600 runners had already signed up for the races by Thursday morning, and he expected more to sign up before the race because of the forecasted good weather. He said there were approximately 3,300 runners last year.

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 9:15 AM with the headline "Garmin Marathon in Olathe gets new course."