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Downtown Warsaw is getting its first half marathon in August.
Going before the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety on Friday, Fellowship Missions Executive Director Eric Lane requested to close Buffalo Street, between Market and Center streets, from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 29, with the event going from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“We’re going to host our first annual Run For Hope. It’s a 5K and half marathon, which will be the first half marathon we’ve had here,” Lane said.
He said he’s working with Cloud 9 Multisport owner Keith Sampson to pull the event off. The police department gave their “blessing” on the safety concerns, and the local businesses on Buffalo signed off on it.
The road closure will have food trucks, and it’ll also serve as the congregation area for family, friends and the runners when they finish.
Mayor Jeff Grose said none of the businesses along Buffalo Street objected to the road closure, with just one stating they were “undecided.”
Councilwoman Diane Quance said, “I think we also need to note we did deny the farmers market request to close that section during Lake City Bank renovations, but it’s expected to be finished by that time so we’ll have another north/south route downtown that vehicles and visitors can use to get through.”
The road closure requested was approved 3-0.
After the meeting, Lane said, “We’ve been talking about it for about a year, or more, to pull off a half marathon here because we don’t have one here.”
He said surrounding counties have one, but there’s none here.
“So we thought a lot of people pull off 5Ks, things like that, and we’re like we want to do something different because we don’t just want to do what everybody else is doing, and we thought, ‘Man, what a cool thing to bring a half marathon to Kosciusko County and start in the heart of Kosciusko County and have a lot of fun, but also raise money for hope, for the individuals we get to serve each and every day.’ And that’s what it’s about,” Lane said.
With part of Buffalo Street shut down for a half day, he said they’ll have a lot of fun down there.
“Next week, registration should go out for it,” Lane said. “Kind of like Fat & Skinny. We’re hoping to draw from all over to come here. That’s where Keith comes in. He’s got all those connections with that. We look forward to having a lot of fun and something new.”
Information on the registration will be available at the Fellowship Missions website at www.fellowshipmissions.net, Cloud 9’s website, as well as social media. Lane said there will be more information coming out, too.
Sampson said it’ll be a “legit” half marathon. There will be medals, top finishers and a 5K and a half marathon.
“So, there will be a shared course, except the 5K finishers will peel off and cross the finish, whereas the half will keep going. And people are encouraged to run it, walk it, whatever their mobility is. But there will be, at this point, there will be men’s and women’s; first, second, third place. We might do - depending on the amount of registers - we might do a top 50. There’s some options. With this being our very first event, it’s an opportunity to kind of set the standard and then grow it from there and evolve,” Sampson explained.
Another road closure request before the Board of Works Friday, which also was approved, was from the Kosciusko County Farms & Artisan market. They requested to close North Buffalo Street at the “horseshoe” from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. June 6, with the market going from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Grose said on June 6 there will be the America 250 parade downtown Warsaw, therefore the farmers market will not be at its usual Saturday morning location on Center Street between Buffalo and Lake streets. He thanked city staff for working with the stakeholders to make it possible.
Quance acknowledged Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce CEO Rob Parker’s “involvement and mediation skills in working through to come to this conclusion.”
