Thousands of runners, surpassing pre-pandemic numbers, took to the Del Mar and La Jolla streets May 18 for the 2024 La Jolla Half Marathon and 5K.
The nearly 7,000 participants is well above the usual five to six thousand entrants the race saw before 2020, according to race director Bart Calame.
“We’re growing again,” Calame said, noting the La Jolla Half Marathon, organized by the Kiwanis Club of La Jolla, skipped 2020 for COVID-19 and had only about 2,000 runners in 2021.
The 13.1-mile half marathon course began at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and concluded at La Jolla’s Scripps Park, with the 5K overlapping on the final 3.1 miles of the course.
This 42nd year of the race, in addition to the higher numbers, also included another new trend: the elimination of paper cups along the course.
Instead of sending more than 30,000 paper cups to the trash, La Jolla Half Marathon runners were given a branded, reusable silicone cup that could be tucked under a watch band or balled into a fist when not in use and filled at the water stations along the way.
“It went really well,” Calame said, adding “runners stepped up” and embraced the new feature.
Also growing: the number of participants with full camera equipment and social media presence, he said. “It’s great to see the digital, creative side” of the race.
The Half Marathon is a major fundraiser for the Kiwanis foundation, which grants money to local nonprofits.
Calame estimates that a record hundreds of thousands of dollars will replenish the foundation’s accounts this year.
