{"id":152596,"date":"2026-02-12T05:22:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T05:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/152596\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T05:22:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T05:22:19","slug":"st-petersburg-distance-classic-draws-largest-turnout-ever-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/152596\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg Distance Classic draws largest turnout ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Sunday was the largest\u00a0St. Petersburg Distance Classic<\/a>\u00a0in the program\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

This was the sixth time the event was hosted.<\/p>\n

Thousands of runners took off from North Shore Park to participate in a marathon, half marathon, 10K and 5K.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Under 3,500 people registered to run in the St. Petersburg Distance Classic
\n
There were 30% more runners this year compared to last year
\n
Chris Lauber and his wife, Rya, founded and operate the St. Pete run from their home
\n
This event is a qualifer for the Boston Marathon<\/p>\n

Marathon runners were met with lots of cheering as they stepped off on their 26.2-mile journey.<\/p>\n

Norman Shaw ran in the St. Pete Distance Classic for the first time, but he knows the area well. He grew up here, but he\u2019s visiting from New Jersey to make this his ninth marathon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most special ones. Runners know St. Pete is as flat as a pancake, so it’s a beautiful run. San Francisco was awful \u2014 all the hills, I mean, it was beautiful, it was horrible to run. This will be nice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old trained for this by running about 30 miles a week. He said you have to go until your body is tired.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just constantly pushing yourself not to stop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s St. Pete Distance Classic had the largest number of runners ever. Under 3,500 people registered for all of Sunday\u2019s races, making it 30% larger than last year. Organizers said they got a grant from Visit St. Pete-Clearwater to advertise the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have almost every state represented and 15 countries,\u201d said Chris Lauber, race director.<\/p>\n

Chris Lauber and his wife, Rya, founded and operate the St. Pete run, but Chris has a long history of organizing these things.<\/p>\n

In 1979, Chris had orchestrated jet ski races in Sebring, Florida. That eventually grew into a big event, even getting ESPN coverage.<\/p>\n

Then, using that experience, he created the Gulf Beaches Marathon in 2000. He said at the time, there wasn\u2019t any sort of race like that in the county.<\/p>\n

The couple now runs the St. Pete Distance Classic out of their garage.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see literally a thousand smiling faces run by you as the fruits of our efforts, I wish there was a single word, but there isn’t,\u201d Chris said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that same feeling that athletes like Shaw have when they run across the finish line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose last six miles are the toughest, but when you’re done, you feel like you beat yourself. It’s such an incredible feeling,\u201d Shaw said.<\/p>\n

The marathon is a qualifier for the Boston Marathon.<\/p>\n

Runners who have a qualifying time can register for the Boston Marathon for 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Sunday was the largest\u00a0St. Petersburg Distance Classic\u00a0in the program\u2019s history. This was the sixth time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[767,274,770,2200,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,2032,1374,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-152596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-community-news","11":"tag-instagram-bn9","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pinellas-county","14":"tag-st-pete","15":"tag-st-pete-headlines","16":"tag-st-pete-news","17":"tag-st-petersburg","18":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","19":"tag-st-petersburg-news","20":"tag-tampa","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-trending-topics","23":"tag-tyler-oneill","24":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}