Glasgow Marathon

Hi all,

I have set up a facebook page to generate interest in having a full Glasgow Marathon on the calendar.

Anyone interested, please feel free to visit the page, like and discuss.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/GlasgowMarathon

Thanks

I also feel there could be a place again for a full Glasgow marathon. I have some friends in Glasgow Leisure and suggested that they hold a full marathon in 2014- the year of the Commonwealth Games. You may recall there was a marathon in 2000 to celebrate the Millenium!

A few of us on the 'Scottish Runners' thread were having this discussion a while ago, and came to similar conclusions that 2014 would be the ideal year.

I emailed the folks in charge of organising the Glasgow Commonwealth Games about 4wks ago, to ask if they had any plans (in conjuction with the Council) to do a trial run of the actual elite marathon route, and perhaps open this for limited public entry, as this could create a huge interest / publicity opportunity in the running community. They responded politely a week later, but basically saying mass sporting events are not part of their remit and they have not yet decided which event courses to trial, and indeed, said they have no obligation to trial any event. Fair enough - it was a long shot anyway, but I just wanted to put the idea into someone's head . Anyhow, upshot was they told me to contact the Council......

....which I had already done at the same time as contacting them - I sent a similar email to Glasgow Life - I have yet to receive any response from them.

Having just seen the 'unveiling' of the CG mascot on the news I'm quite glad they told me to bog off .

I think a Marathon in Glasgow is a great idea and would get full support from the whole of the UK in terms of entrants, Marathons are quite limited in Scotland (6 or 7 if I remeber correctly) and to have it in a city like Glasgow would be fantastic! I hate Facebook hence my response here

Anyway, just seen the mascot too  he looks like a pr1ck!  

LOL - good to see they are continuing on with the phallic obsession from the Olympics .

I've actually just read the story, didn't realise it was created by a 12 year old so feel a bit bad now!

Anyway, 2014 Glasgow Marathon...... I'll sign the petition if someone gets it started, I was thinking about doing New York in 2014 but Glasgow would be better!!!

Fair enough - it was designed by a young'un. But someone on a CG panel picked it out of 4000 competition entries?  Dread to think what the rest were like!

I dont like using FB either which is why I decided to write to the Council and Games Committees individually, think it gives it a more personal touch. I reckon the more positive emails etc that land at Glasgow Life's door supporting the idea of a Glasgow Marathon the better. Easy to ignore one person, harder to ignore 1000's .

A Glasgow marathon would be great. It's a real shame it was killed off before the sport became as popular as it is today. You would think the popularity of the Great Scottish Run weekend would be a sign that if it was done right it could be a real success, but then part of me wonders if the thought of hosting two events like that each year would actually put the city council off.

There are some really good old photos of the event on the Facebook page.

An old neighbour of mine did the marathon they put on in 2000. It was on the same day as the GSR, basically everyone ran the Half route together, then when they got to Glasgow Green the Full people set off on a different route that took them out on a circuit to Maryhill. He said this second half was a drag a) because the field massively thinned out, going from running with 100's to completely by yourself, with many Full runners also just opting out at the Green, and b) the actual route was a nightmare with a long drag up Maryhill road and a section going over Cleveden Hill (via the steep way next to the canal for those that know it ). He had done the London marathon a number of times prior to this, and really wasnt used to smaller events, so found this very lonely for a city marathon.

I think if it did go ahead then very careful consideration would need to be paid to the route. But on a positive note I think they would get many many more entrants for the Full than they did in 2000.