Seattle ready to "Rock 'n Roll" in 2009...


Courtesy of our media partner, The Running Network, is this press release announcing that Seattle will be the latest city to host the highly-successful Rock 'n Roll Marathon and 1/2 Marathon series, beginning June 27, 2009.

The inaugural race is set to kick off the city’s annual Seafair summer celebration, and will travel from Tukwila to Seattle on Saturday, June 27, 2009.

“The Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle will be staged in conjunction with the city’s annual Seafair festival,” said Peter Englehart, Chief Executive Officer of the Competitor Group. “We are excited about hosting an inaugural field of between 15,000 – 20,000 runners, plus we’ll be bringing not only our standard backdrop of having a rock ‘n roll band stationed at every mile along the race course, but also a world-class health and fitness expo as well as a headliner concert.”

Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, will be the location of both the finish line and the Health Fitness Expo. The two-day Health Fitness Expo that precedes each and every musical marathon will host over one hundred running and fitness retailers, exhibits and clinics.

"The 2009 Rock 'n' Roll Marathon will be a great opportunity for us to showcase Seattle in the summer, especially since it will be broadcast nationally on Fox Sports Net," said Beth Knox, Executive Director of Seafair. "We're excited to show the world what makes Seattle an ideal vacation city, and know that the race will be the perfect kickoff to our annual Seafair."

The race's website is http://www.rnrsea.com.

To read the full release, click here...

Comments

Database Diva said…
I had heard the rumor that Elite was taking over the Seafair Marathon, but I foolishly assumed they would want to keep the cool course across the floating bridge. I was disappointed to learn that the new route was from Tukwila to Qwest Field. I guess once you are in Tukwila you have the motivation of getting the heck out of Tukwila, but to me it makes more sense to not go in the first place. I feel kind of sorry for tourists who pay big money to come here just to see the worst parts of Seattle, but having run a couple of Rock n Roll events, I guess I've done the same thing in other cities.

I thought the 2008 Seafair course was brilliant, and was really disappointed that I couldn't run it this year. I did run the Seafair Half in 2004 and 2005, and the full in 2007. It was a great event that was well organized, and had some of the best volunteers ever. I'm glad I did it while I had the chance.