The Oakland Running Festival, part marathon and part 5k, is tomorrow, although festivities were held today as well. But the good news is, and for the third straight year, the 5k portion of the event has sold out. Overall, race organizers expect 9,000 runners to participate, attract an even larger number of onlookers, and pour money into the Oakland economy on Sunday.
Well, to the extent they stand and watch in the rain. It’s been pouring down cats and dogs in Oakland all weekend.
And it’s not just the Oakland Economy that benefits, but charity too. At Thursday’s Oakland Running Festival Press Conference, various charities were presented with checks. For example, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Oakland Running Festival Race Manager Gene Bartpresented The East Oakland Boxing Coalition with a check for $1,500. And as the number of people participating increases each year, checks like that one will only get bigger.
Although I missed interviewing Gene Bartalik this year because I’m traveling for family reasons, for those of you who have not met him, here’s my talk from 2011:
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll