By PAMELA GOULD
Mike Bartell, his wife and three other couples traveled from Montgomery County, Md., to Fredericksburg last weekend to run in the inaugural Marine Corps Historic Half.
They stayed in a city hotel, ate at local restaurants and found it easy to find the Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center--site of the start and finish lines for Sunday's race and host for the two-day Healthy Lifestyle Expo.
Bartell said he enjoyed the experience so much he plans to return to run next year.
Bartell and his friends are an example of what the region's tourism and economic-development officials had hoped for when the folks who run the Marine Corps Marathon approached them last year with the idea of running a half marathon in the city.
Historic Half race coordinator Angela Huff said she saw Fredericksburg as a safe and attractive place for the 13.1-mile event and knew people in the area were enthusiastic about running. She also knew from her experience as business manager for the annual Marine Corps Marathon that the city and region could benefit economically from the event.
The most recent study of the full marathon's economic impact found that the 30,000 participants and their spectators poured $31.7 million into the Arlington and Washington areas during the 2006 race.
Fredericksburg officials won't have official data on visitors for at least another month, and a formal study by the University of Mary Washington won't be ready until August, but initial impressions gave the event high marks.
"In my perspective, overall I think everything went extremely well, very smooth," said Kimberly Herbert, the city's conference sales and services specialist. "The partnership [with the Marines] could not have been any better."
City officials reported restaurants were busy--some with long waits--and hotels were heavily booked at least for one night.
"If we weren't 100 percent [full], we were pretty darn close," said Karen Hedelt, the city's tourism development manager.
Kevin Gullette, the city's economic development and tourism director, said that on Saturday downtown Fredericksburg looked like a shopping mall at Christmas.
"It was just jam-packed," he said.
Tourism officials with Stafford and Spotsylvania counties weren't quite as pleased, however.
Their initial chats with hotel managers revealed disappointment in the number of rooms booked for the event, which included activities all weekend.
Even at that, Comfort Suites in southern Stafford reported being sold out, and WyteStone Suites in Spotsylvania was pleased to report that the top woman finisher stayed there, according to tourism managers M.C. Moncure of Stafford and Rachel DeLooze of Spotsylvania.
Even in Fredericksburg, some disappointment was registered.
Ronnie James, general manager of the Hampton Inn & Suites and Homewood Suites in Celebrate Virginia South, said he had counted on participants staying both Friday and Saturday nights and set aside blocks of rooms, but most visitors signed up only for Saturday night.
"I think that next year when we sign contracts, a number of hotels will be requiring reservations for more than one night," James said.
Still, he's hopeful that people who stayed picked up brochures about area attractions, including the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico, and will return for vacation.
A PROCESS OF EDUCATION
Gullette expects bigger crowds next year based not only on marathon officials' plans to double the field to 10,000, but also on comments from visitors.
He encountered folks from the close-in suburbs of Washington who said they mistakenly thought it would be easy enough to pick up their race packets on Saturday, go home for the night and return for the 7 a.m. race on Sunday.
He expects them to be among the overnight guests next year.
Many may be visitors sooner, however, given their comments that they couldn't believe they'd lived in the Washington area for years and never knew "this gem" was so close by.
The running field wasn't full on Sunday morning. Though 5,563 people registered for the race, only about 3,900 took part, Huff said.
Those numbers didn't surprise her, given that the industry standard is between 20 and 25 percent of no-shows, but she's not satisfied with it.
In the next few weeks, race officials will be sending surveys to the people who didn't show up to try to find out why.
Huff suspects weather reports played a role, as rain was forecast but held off during the race.
Among those who took part or watched, praise has been high.
"I was bombarded with positive e-mails and praise," Huff said.
She, in turn, had high praise for the city's officials and residents.
She marveled at the 350 people who signed up as volunteers, complementing the 250 Marines deployed around the city.
Bartell sang the praises of the city and the Marines.
He appreciated city residents' turning out to cheer the runners, enjoyed the entertainment located along the route and, with the perspective of an experienced Marine Corps Marathon participant, commended the Corps.
"As always, the Marines prepared and executed a flawless day," he said in an e-mail to organizers.
Bartell, who was interviewed by phone, said he felt Fredericksburg did a good job of showcasing itself, contrasting this event with his route in the inaugural Frederick, Md., marathon that took him through an "industrial" area.
City officials said the one glitch they heard about was that some cars weren't allowed to cross the course when runners weren't present, as had been planned.
Otherwise, they felt it was an exceptional event, with city streets cleaned up and reopened quickly.
Gullette had no hesitation about a long-term commitment to the Marine Corps Historic Half.
"As long as they want to keep running the race, we want to host it," he said.
Staff writer Cathy Jett contributed to this report.
Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
Email: pgould@freelancestar.com