Save the date: Saturday, March 29, 2014
PHDC note of interest: The Potomac Highlands Distance Club plans to stage a distance race on March 1,2014 in the Allegany County area in order to facilitate training for the Queen City Marathon. Details will be posted here as well as on the PHDC Facebook page as details become available.
CUMBERLAND, Md., Nov. 20, 2012 — Race director Staci Calder has announced plans for a new marathon in Allegany County. Scheduled for Saturday, March 29, 2014, Calder said those in the 26.2-mile event will “start with a two-mile loop in and around downtown Cumberland, then head onto the C&O Canal (towpath) for a flat, out-and-back” course to Spring Gap.”
Runners will complete the Queen City Marathon at Canal Place. Proceeds from the event will benefit ActiveWater, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that uses the athletic lifestyle and grassroots campaigns to bring clean water and sanitation projects to needed communities throughout the globe.
Calder made the announcement on Facebook and noted she had received approval from Cumberland Mayor Brian Grim.
This is the second attempt at staging a marathon in Allegany County. The Potomac Highlands Distance Club, under its former name Mountain Maryland Marathon Club, hosted the Mountain Maryland Marathon Festival in April of 2009 and 2010. Those two years, the marathon club served more than 1,000 runners from 13 states, distributed more than $3,300 to a local charity and awarded more than $8,000 in performance-based prizes to the top runners in the marathon and half marathon. In 2010, the half marathon was designated the Road Runners Club of America’s Eastern Region Half Marathon Championship. The club also staged a 5K as well as two shorter distances geared towards children.
The course will be quite different, however. Like the Queen City Marathon, the beginning of the Mountain Maryland Marathon took city streets out of town, but runners then hopped onto the Great Allegheny Passage for 10 additional, grueling uphill miles before hitting the turnaround point above Mount Savage and turning back down to Canal Place. The marathon and half marathon courses remain USATF certified.
Calder is working with the Queen City Striders to plan the Queen City Marathon in 2014. For more information on Calder and her Team ActiveWater efforts, click here.
