Thousands of runners head downtown for the 2024 Zeigler Kalamazoo Marathon
by Julie Williams | News Channel 3Sun, May 5th 2024 at 1:04 PM
Updated Sun, May 5th 2024 at 5:15 PM
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The morning of Sunday, May 5 was chilly in downtown Kalamazoo. There was a slight dampness to everything.
It was cold for spectators, but it was perfect for runners, according to race officials.
It was the morning of the Zeigler Kalamazoo Marathon. Almost 4,000 runners would be coming to the Arcadia Creek Festival site to run one of four races: the marathon, the half marathon, the 10K and the 5K.
A full marathon is 26.2 miles. A half marathon is 13.1. A 10K is about six miles and a 5K is about three.
The marathon stepped off promptly at 7 a.m. and runners took to the streets. The half marathon stepped off at 8:30 a.m.
News Channel 3’s Jessica Harthorn has been training for about 20 weeks for the half marathon.
“This is the capstone of our training,” Harthorn said. She said she had stretched out and felt good the morning of the race.
A lot of the people News Channel 3 talked to near the starting line said the same thing. They said they felt good and were glad the day had finally arrived.
That was a sentiment shared by the marathon’s primary sponsor.
“There’s a lot of excitement down here at the start line and there’s a lot of work that went into this and helping people be a healthier community,” said Aaron Zeigler, President of the Zeigler Auto Group.
“It brings people in from all walks of life and it really allows us to showcase our city; it’s a beautiful city and it bring a lot of people in from out of town.”
News Channel 3 spoke to two runners who had come in from the east side of the state for the half marathon and the 5K.
“This is the fun part of training,” said Kristen Damerow, who was running the half marathon. “This is supposed to be the fun part at the end of training so that’s how you have to look at it.”
Kristen’s friend, Kelsey Gay, was running the 5K and said it was the fourth 5K she had done within the week. She likened it to a form of self care.
Their friend, Konner Damerow, said the same thing and explained his strategy for the 5K race.
“You just genuinely disconnect, unplug, throw a podcast on and loud music and just go,” said Konner.
The Zeigler Kalamazoo Marathon route winds through downtown Kalamazoo and into parts of Portage. To see a list of how all of the runners did for this year’s event, click here.
