LEWISTON — A popular Lewiston-Auburn half-marathon will get bumped this year, postponed to 2016 by a bigger South Portland running event.
Rachel Desgrosseilliers, executive director of Museum L-A, said organizers had started promoting the 2015 Bands on the Run Half Marathon & 5K, scheduled for June 28.
“Last year, they had a big Color Run in South Portland on the first weekend of June, but this year, they moved it to our date,” Desgrosseilliers said. “By the time we found out, it was too late to change to another date and everybody we needed to work with was already booked. We were pretty bummed.”
A Color Run is kind of a trendy national 5-kilometer race. Participants start the event dressed all in white and are showered with a different-colored powder at each kilometer.
The for-profit national organization is supported by national sponsors and schedules races throughout the country. Maine is hosting two this year, June 28 in South Portland and Aug. 23 in Bangor.
“Supposedly, they had 5,000 people show up in South Portland last year,” she said. “I don’t know why they moved it to our weekend.”
This would have been the third year of the Lewiston-Auburn event, which features local bands playing live music along the route.
“We plan it every year on the same date, and we had promoted it on Facebook,” Desgrosseilliers said. “When this came to light, we began checking with people to find out if they were going. Many said they weren’t, so we couldn’t take the risk.”
It’s a major fundraiser for the museum, Desgrosseilliers said. Last year, Bands on the Run raised $10,000.
“We’d gotten feedback on last year’s race and had a new route for people to run,” Desgrosseilliers said. “So now, we start early and we’ll be ready for next year. We’ll come back with an even bigger event.”
Other Lewiston-Auburn running races are safe and going ahead as planned, according to Mike Lecompte, co-director of the Triple Crown events. The Triple Crown consists of three 5K running races: the YMCA Fit Fest on June 7, Emily’s Run on July 19 and the L-A Bridge Run on Aug. 23.
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