Salina Hosts Crossroads Marathon

On Saturday, November 2, despite the rainy weather, Salina hosted the 3rd Crossroads Marathon. There were over 5,200 runners registered from all 50 states and 7 countries including Canada, Australia, Denmark, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The  Crossroads Marathon is a USATF Certified Race as well as a Boston Marathon Qualifier. 

Based on reviews, the Crossroads Marathon is one of the national leading race sites

The Crossroads Marathon began as a vision by Chris Lehecka and Daniel Craig after imagining what it would look like for the city of Salina to host a high-quality marathon/half marathon race. With the help of the City of Salina, they designed an enjoyable and scenic course around Salina. Based on reviews, the Crossroads Marathon is one of the national leading race sites. The marathon committee consists of local runners and individuals in the profit and nonprofit organizations. All of the race fees are given to local youth sports organizations that include: the School Marathon Foundation, Salina Burn Track and Field Club, Salina YMCA, Salina Area Youth Sportsmanship Initiative, and Kansas Youth Sports.

Race Facts:

• Hosea Kiptoo of York, NE won the marathon with a time of 2:39:20
• There were over 5,000 registered runners who participated
• There were 9 different race distances
• Results can be found at:  https://www.athlinks.com/event/363794/results/Event/1067395/Course/2422456/Results

There were also many locals who participated in the races as well. Kate Toogood, a Salina native ran her first ever half-marathon and said “I have been training the past couple of months for my half-marathon. Although the weather conditions weren’t the best, I still enjoyed running it because of the atmosphere. There were people all over the course who were cheering me on so that made the race go by a lot faster.” When asked about the toughness of the course, Toogood said that “the curse itself was mostly flat. The most challenging thing for me was running up the hill at Indian Rock.” Max Ehrlich, another local who participated in the race said that “despite getting rained on, I enjoyed running the half marathon because you got to run around a lot of the city.”

Despite the cold and rainy weather, the 3rd Crossroads Marathon in Salina was a successful race

Despite the cold and rainy weather, the 3rd Crossroads Marathon in Salina was a successful race thanks to all of the hard work and behind the scenes work that was put into making this event happen. The city of Salina is looking forward to hosting this event again in October 2025. 

This story is a follow-up to an earlier article about the City of Salina preparing for the race.