Weekend running festival to welcome crowd of 20,000 to Oakland
on March 24, 2011
The Oakland Marathon will get off to a running start on Sunday, March 27 with a handful of other race events and activities on Saturday preceding the principal competition, as part of the second annual Oakland Running Festival.
Due to some traffic congestion on major streets during the inaugural weekend festivities in 2010, a few small changes were made to this year’s course. Event organizers also say that increased marketing of the event was done this year in order to ensure that Oakland commuters are more aware of the estimated 20,000 participants and spectators this year’s races are expected to draw.
Last year’s contests brought in approximately $2 million in revenue for the city, and Corrigan Sports Enterprises, the event’s founding management firm, hopes to increase that number by $1 million per year as the number of participants increases annually. In 2010, the event had nearly 6,500 runners, and current numbers leading up to the race indicate that they will have upwards of 7,000 this year.
For more information about the Oakland Running Festival, check out the event website, or read some of Oakland North’s other preview coverage of the marathon, which includes the different race routes.
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