Fargo Marathon Rerouted Because of Flooding

The new path will avoid trails and bridges that are still under water or too wet

FARGO, N.D. — The Fargo Marathon is two weeks away, but if you ran or cheered people on in the past, you might notice some changes this year.

Several areas around the river along the original route have been changed, because the floodwaters haven’t receded.

“We saw it coming, we were trying to be optimistic of course that last blizzard that hit South Dakota, of course the water flows north from there. So that really hurt. That slowed the recession of the flooding,” marathon organizer Mark Knutson said.

Organizers are working with the city to keep runners off paved trails, bike paths, and footbridges that are still under water or too wet.

“Last year at this time, the last four years, we haven’t had to deal with anything. We haven’t really dealt with much since ’09. That was the worst year we had for the marathon,” Knutson said.

He says by the time race day comes, bike paths most likely won’t have water on them, but still aren’t ideal for running.

“They’ll be muddy, it won’t be picturesque to be running down…if it rains the day before then they’re just not going to be good,” he said.

The route will avoid the bridge between Lindenwood Park and Gooseberry Park and the one between Oak Grove and Hjemkomst Park.

The marathon will begin at the Fargodome and go north towards Trollwood Park.

When runners come back into Fargo from Moorhead on the new route, they will cross over the Veterans Memorial Bridge.

Then the path will go down along the river towards Lindenwood Park, and back up, ending at the Fargodome.

Organizers are aiming for 20,000 people to participate over the week of marathon events, which include the Cyclothon, Furgo dog run, and kids’ run.

“It’s a great celebration of the community and it’s about as much fun of a marathon as anyone’s going to find,” Knutson said. He describes the 15 year tradtion as, “second to none.”

The week long festivities will start on May 13 and the marathon is May 18. You can sign up here.