City Hall Is Seeking New Group to Organize This Year’s Portland Marathon

After the previous event organizer was fined and the organization dissolved, the city wants the race to go on.

Portland Marathon in 2012 (nprpdx / Flickr)
By Rachel Monahan

The city is officially seeking to keep Portland's marathon tradition alive, soliciting a new organization to run the event.

The move comes after the former race director, Les Smith, resigned his nonprofit post and paid to settle an $865,000 Oregon Department of Justice case against him.

The remaining board officially dissolved the nonprofit Portland Marathon Inc. shortly thereafter.

The press release from the Portland Bureau of Transportation says the city has already heard from several interested event organizers.

Applications are due from those groups by May 25 and the city will draw the organizer at random from qualified applicants on June 1.

“Interested applicants will be asked to respond to seven questions that assess whether they have the experience, organizational capacity and financial resources necessary to successfully organize a marathon in 2018. Responses will be due on May 25th, 2018,” the release states.

“On June 1, 2018, the City will then hold a blind draw from the pool of qualified applicants to determine which company will produce the marathon.”

The event will be held October 7.

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