Thursday, October 29th, 2015
Grand Lake Marathon gets new ownership
By Gary R. Rasberry
The 2016 Grand Lake Marathon will be under new ownership.
Rocketship Sports Management, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to promoting high quality athletic events and group fitness activities, has turned over control of the 2-year-old marathon to Ryan King of Can't Stop Running.
Roger Bowersock, who coordinated the first two marathons, said this morning that the event's size and the amount of work it required became too large for his organization.
"It's a large event. A very big event that requires a lot of regular working," Bowersock said in a telephone interview. "We (Rocketship) put on a lot of events and the marathon, which may not be the largest in participation, had the most attention. I'm a volunteer. Our group is not paid to put on events. When an event becomes a hindrance, we look to see if we want to continue it or stop it or allow to have someone else take it over. We put in a ton of work over the past three years into this, so we didn't want to see it die."
Ryan King, co-owner of Can't Stop Running, of Piqua, confirmed the change.
"We're excited to be a part of (the marathon) and to (have it) continue to be a part of Mercer and Auglaize counties," said King, who noted a formal presentation will take place Friday.
Having Rocketship turn over control of the marathon to Can't Stop Running was a detailed process, Bowersock said.
"We talked about Ryan being involved in some aspect. The conversation changed into 'Would you like to take it over?' " Bowersock said. "We started talking about transferring ownership and (Rocketship) stepping back from being the manager and owner." The first two years of the Grand Lake Marathon, which is sanctioned by U.S.A. Track and Field and is a Boston Marathon qualifier, have been successful with nearly 2,000 runners taking part in the full marathon, half marathon or other races in each of the first two years.
Justin Gillette has won both men's marathons. Julie Cousins was the women's marathon winner in 2015.
Bowersock is proud of his group's efforts to make the marathon a success.
"There was an intense vetting process for Ryan because (the marathon) is something we feel passionate about," Bowersock said. "We put a ton of work into it. Making sure it goes to someone with the same vision and ideas as we do was very important. (King) is the right guy. We're going to help him. ... We want it to be successful."
