Two Cities Marathon is back and even better

With area's embrace, race can be the big event its organizers envision.

Published online on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009

Not everything went perfectly, but you've got to expect that.

How'd things go with your first kiss? Your first bike ride? Your first home renovation?

Point being, you have to try things a few times before you get them exactly right, and so not everything went perfectly at the inaugural Eye-Q Two Cities Marathon last November.

For starters, around mile 18, the race leader turned left instead of right and ran a quarter-mile in the wrong direction.

Also, some of the trails along the race course were a tad too narrow for 3,000 runners, and wind blew cups from the water stations all over Fresno.

The biggest problem, though, was the number of complaints that came flooding downtown afterward. Somehow they manage to close down the streets of Chicago for 40,000 runners without much fuss, but you block a few Crown Victorias on the north side from getting to church, and you'd better be ready to take this to the parking lot.

Politicians being politicians -- and this is only a slight exaggeration -- they said the race had to please every single man, woman and child in town or they wouldn't be able to support it.

(Fine print: The opinions expressed here are exclusively those of the columnist, and in no way reflect those of the race, its organizers, or its sponsors. Carry on.)

"It was very discouraging," says Mike Herman, the race director. "We were at a point where we were really like, 'Should we do this again?' "

What kept him going were all those comment cards from runners. The race got an unbelievable 550 response cards from the 3,000 people who entered, and most every one of them gushed. Mostly, it was because it was a great marathon. At the Rock 'n' Roll marathons, the ones in cities such as San Diego and Seattle and San Antonio, they toss you a medal and a banana as they cash your $100 check.

After the Two Cities Marathon, your arms and stomach are so stuffed you felt like you were leaving Grandma's house on Christmas Day. Each runner gets a long-sleeved running shirt, a medal and a finisher's sweatshirt (this year, zippy-hoodie!). There's a hot breakfast for everyone, free massages, a beer garden and hot fudge sundaes.

That's the great thing about Herman. He aims big. When you're the chief financial officer at a company like Eye-Q, you don't think about the easiest and the cheapest way to do things.

When Herman decided to start the Two Cities Marathon, he didn't want a quaint local race. He wanted it to be national. He wanted grand. He envisioned 10,000 runners at the starting line. He pictured Olympic runners coming to Fresno.

A great Mike Herman story: Six years ago, he couldn't run a single mile. He'd gotten up to 225 pounds. At no point in his life had he ever been a runner. Within three years, he had qualified for the Boston Marathon.

Now, at 53 years old, he's 175 pounds and he's run 22 marathons in 20 states. And you know why? He's hooked, of course, but also because he's looking for ideas. When he saw another race had a hot breakfast, he said Two Cities could do it better and got Pardini's to cater it.

They took out a quarter-page ad in Runner's World magazine. They sent 100,000 fliers all over the country. When the city of Fresno said the race simply could not shut down the north side from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2009, he paid thousands to get the course changed and OK'd by a USATF official. Apparently, you have to get a "certified certifier" with a little measuring wheel.

Rest easy, north side. Willow Avenue will be open during the entire race this year. Other streets will open as soon as the race passes, instead of staying closed until 2 p.m. Truthfully, the new course is much better, and goes all the way into Old Town, down Pollasky Avenue.

It will take time for Fresno and Clovis to embrace its marathon. This last weekend was the famous Chicago Marathon, and you should see the pride they have there. Not the runners, the city. You should see people line the streets and hold signs and scream for strangers. It's like 9.5 million people got together at a meeting and said, "Let's show them what we're all about."

I love that the race organizers here see that possibility in Fresno, that when last year's 850 volunteers weren't enough, they're getting 1,100 this year. I love that Fresno's marathon is a nonprofit event, that Herman talked his company into giving $100,000 to sponsor it for at least five years, and that all the profit is going to six local charities. The likes of Children's Hospital and Hinds Hospice and Make-A-Wish are getting $10,000 each.

Get ready. Because they're coming again. They raised the limit to 5,000 runners, and it's probably going to sell out by Oct. 31. People are signed up from 40 states and four different countries.

"I didn't think we were going to hit 5,000 runners in two years," Herman says. "I just thought no way."

Word spreads fast about a great race. Let's send them home feeling the same about our Two Cities.