This morning, while in the final stages of preparing for registration to open tonight at midnight, we received word that the Asheville Marathon and Half will not receive the necessary final approvals to take place at the Biltmore Estate on March 20th, 2021.
This morning’s news came as a complete shock, and we genuinely empathize with the disappointment of everyone who has already dedicated hard work and planning in preparation for the half this year. Believe us; we feel that exact pain ourselves. Since receiving the news, we have opened conversations with the City of Asheville to determine a possible new location for the event on the same date.
Our small team has worked tirelessly this past year to rethink and reimagine all our events to fit the current state of the world. We’ve put every aspect of the event planning process under the microscope to find ways to implement health and safety measures for our participants, and we can proudly say that that process has led to some of our most successful and innovative events to date. While we have created a recipe for success under the weight of increasing guidelines, the reality of planning events during a pandemic is that the process is unpredictable and challenging. However, we’re willing to take on that challenge because of our passionate commitment to our Asheville Marathon community.
Just as you all need in-person events to look forward to and train for, we need the support of our community of runners so we can continue to bring race experience events to our community. We are truly in this together with you, and this loss is a tough pill to swallow for all of us.
But, there’s no time for us to wallow in self-pity… We’ve got work to do!
While the task of relocating this event is not an easy one, we have successfully gone through that process multiple times this year, and we’re confident that we can do it again. We do foresee this event taking place on the Biltmore Estate again in the future.
We already have a packed calendar of safe, socially-distanced events for 2021, and this new development has only made us hungrier for more. We are dedicating our time to improving our current events and creating new ones to fill the void left behind by this event. Please, stay tuned for more progress, announcements, and excitement in the weeks to come.
As always, you can reach us at support@idaph.net for any questions, comments, or concerns, and we look forward to seeing you all soon.
UPDATE 1/8/2021:
While we are still reeling from the race not being able to happen at the estate for 2021, we are feeling hopeful and are cautiously getting excited. We have some solid plans coming together with the City of Asheville to relocate the Asheville Half Marathon to the downtown area for March 20, 2021. Keep sending all your good juju and vibes that we can still run together at a new spot in March. We are keeping all our fingers and toes crossed!
Keep those hotel rooms booked for now and keep dreaming of running an awesome, in person, safe half marathon in March. Paperwork and maps have been submitted and we should have the info we need later next week in order to keep moving forward with this event at the new location. In the meantime, get outside and keep running!