Myrtle Beach Marathon moving to early March in 2016

The Myrtlebeach.com Myrtle Beach Marathon has known only February dates in its 18 years.

That will change in 2016.

The race, which for the past dozen or so years has been run in mid-February on Presidents Day weekend, will move to the first Saturday in March next year for what organizers hope becomes its permanent home.

“Maybe the weather will be [milder], you never know,” Myrtle Beach Marathon president Shaun Walsh said. “But I think psychologically a marathon in March will have more of an aesthetic appeal as opposed to a marathon in January or February.”

By moving to March, race organizers will have a better chance at good weather and hope to parlay that into more participation, and some area business leaders believe the move off of a three-day weekend to a weekend without an existing staple event will give the area economy a boost.

“We view this as a good move by the marathon committee for the community,” said Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce president Brad Dean. “We don’t anticipate the March dates to hurt the marathon but to help spring tourism overall.”

The race has had its cold weather issues. An ice storm along the Eastern Seaboard in the days leading up to last year’s race kept numerous registered runners from traveling to it, and the race was canceled in 2010 because of a rare snow storm.

The 2015 marathon, being run next Saturday, is expected to have more than 7,000 runners in marathon, half marathon and marathon relay races, essentially matching last year’s total race high. Approximately 1,200 runners will take part in an affiliated 5-kilometer run Friday night.

“We’re hoping to increase numbers, but it’s an unknown for us right now,” Walsh said. “… The problem is, if it doesn’t work it’s going to be hard to come back [in dates].”

Walsh said he was encouraged by hoteliers and other tourism leaders to move the dates from Presidents Day weekend and away from Valentines Day – a couple of holidays that might draw customers and visitors to area businesses without the added attraction of the race.

“I think one of the advantages of this move is by opening up a holiday weekend local hotels will have more opportunity to market three-day weekends to leisure travelers than before,” Dean said.

Professor Taylor Damonte, director of the Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism at Coastal Carolina, said hotel occupancy rates in Horry County generally build in the first half of the year as the weather warms up, and every three-day weekend has higher occupancy rates than the two weekends around it.

For instance, Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend in January 2012 had occupancy rates of 44 percent compared to 28 and 30 percent on the weekends surrounding it.

Presumably boosted by the marathon, Presidents Day weekend has had occupancy rates at Horry County hotels and condo hotels of between 59 and 68 percent over the past four years, according to Damonte, with the low coming last year after the ice storm.

On the first weekend in March, occupancy rates were 60 percent last year and between 51-53 percent the three years prior.

The average price of hotel rooms for both weekends is about the same at $70 per night.

“There are two reasons the move works for the marathon,” Damonte said. “There’s a better chance the weather will be better, and since the event is only a Friday or Saturday event, it doesn’t necessarily need the Monday holiday to get people back home. For the area, it frees up the resources we have to be sold to people who really need the three-day holiday. In the long term I think it might help the economy of the area.”

Dean said there isn’t an existing annual large event on the first weekend in March, and the marathon will avoid later March events including spring break, St. Patrick’s Day weekend and a car show. “There’s not like a fixture event it’s competing against. None will draw the attendance the marathon draws,” said Dean, who added the chamber plans to increase its involvement in the marathon’s promotion.

Myrtle Beach city spokesman Mark Kruea believes the verdict is still out on which weekend would be best for the city to host the marathon.

“We’ll see how that goes,” Kruea said. “The February weekend is a three-day weekend, the one they’re moving to isn’t a three-day weekend, so I don’t know how that will work for the many people who travel to Myrtle Beach to participate in the marathon. That may be something we’ll have to take in stride.

“I think we’ll need to see whether that weekend in March can accommodate having an extra event on it.”

Pushing the dates back to the first weekend in March means the race will be either two or three weeks later than it has been. Next year it will be three weeks after Presidents Day weekend, and many years, including 2017-19, it will be two weeks later.

The February race dates were initially beneficial to the marathon because it was among the final races before the cutoff for qualifying for the Boston Marathon. But the iconic April race now sells out well before the Myrtle Beach Marathon takes place, so runners qualifying here have to wait until the next year’s Boston Marathon. “So that’s not a selling point for us anymore,” Walsh said.

The building of the large Myrtle Beach Sports Center behind the Myrtle Beach Convention Center allowed marathon organizers to move the dates. The center has a planned March 7 opening and will now be able to host the HTC Runner’s Expo on the Thursday and Friday of race week. The convention center has been booked in early March so organizers haven’t had a logical venue to host the expo.

Pelicans Ballpark, which contains the start/finish line, needed to be available as well, and it is.

This story was originally published February 6, 2015 at 10:52 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach Marathon moving to early March in 2016."