FARGO 鈥� The Sanford Fargo Marathon has been sold to a national company called Rugged Races with hopes of boosting participation numbers.
The transaction from Fargo Marathon Inc. to Rugged Races was completed last week, said race founder Mark Knutson, who said runners competing in the 16th annual event next May are not expected to see a difference.
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Knutson and cohort Mike Almquist will still run the Sanford Fargo Marathon events, only they are now employees of Rugged Races, which is a division of Gatehouse Live based in Chattanooga, Tenn.
鈥淚f there was one thing to describe this transaction, at this point it鈥檚 the best thing that could have happened to the Fargo Marathon,鈥� Knutson said. 鈥淚t will take the Fargo Marathon to the next level at a point when marathons are leveling off. It鈥檚 a struggle.鈥�
The Fargo Marathon began in 2005 with 2,641 participants. Growth came quickly with almost 20,000 in all events by 2010. The high was 25,700 in 2012.
The races maintained levels around 20,000, but dropped to 17,800 last May.
Rugged Races, Knutson said, is expected to help push the numbers up again with its national arsenal of marketing power, including a database of 500,000 runners.
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鈥淲e can鈥檛 tap into that,鈥� Knutson said. 鈥淚 can buy all the ads in Runner鈥檚 World (magazine) I want but no way can I push a button and send an email to 500,000 people and say, come run Fargo.鈥�
Fargo Marathon Inc. will still run the nonprofit segment of the marathon.
The Sanford Fargo Marathon was previously run under Knutson鈥檚 company called Go Far Events, which contracted with the marathon to manage the event. Go Far Events still exists, Knutson said, but he鈥檚 not sure for how long. The Dick Beardsley races in Detroit Lakes, Minn., and Fargo Mini Marathon are part of Fargo Marathon Inc. and will continue under Rugged. Knutson said he's not sure about races like Sandy's Donuts 5K and 10K and Resolution 5K and 10K, which were owned by Go Far Events.
Knutson will be a director of operations for Rugged Races and Almquist an operations manager. Knutson said he could not disclose the selling price 鈥渂ut you can say it wasn鈥檛 a big check up front but an over-time process.鈥�
Rugged Races will also provide the Sanford Fargo Marathon timing personnel, photography, medals and T-shirts.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 their marketing muscle,鈥� Almquist said.
