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 | Planet Extras! | | Organizers Postpone Inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix Event For One Year ... Say They Didn't Have Enough Time to Prepare Event By Robert "Don't Shoot the Messenger" Burnson International City Racing says that because of time constraints it has decided to postpone the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix event until next year. "Sadly, I have just been informed that the 2005 Grand Prix Event will not happen," said Mike Schaefer, the inline event director for International City Racing. "We were too optimistic with such a short time line available," he said in an email. "We will, however, put on the event in 2006. "Mark your calendars for early April in '06 -- it should be a fun event!" International City Racing's Bob Seagren announced the Grand Prix event in mid-January as a way to build participation in the Long Beach Marathon, the biggest event put on by the company. The new event was scheduled for April 3rd on the Long Beach's Grand Prix racecourse. It was to have included a 12-mile bicycle race, an eight-mile inline race, a four-mile run, and a triathlon. Participants in the triathlon were to have skated four miles, cycled four miles and run two miles. There is no word yet on whether the format for 2006 will be the same. The organizers had said they would post registration information on their web site within a week or two of Seagran's announcement on Jan. 12th. But when no registration information appeared for several weeks, it appeared time was running out for the event. "The biggest factor that affected our decision to postpone the event until 2006 was the short time line [which] the city of Long Beach was concerned with," Schaefer said. "The local entities (hotels, restaurants, shopping centers) wanted more time to be able to properly prepare for such an event, and the city of Long Beach agreed." Ironically, even though the event is dead on arrival for 2005, it managed to breathe new life into the Long Beach Inline Marathon, which International City Racing had been thinking of scrapping this year. Seagren said that it was the idea of the Grand Prix event that persuaded the company to give the inline marathon another chance. (posted February 8, 2005) | Related Reading: • Bob Seagren Outlines Grand Prix Event • Long Beach Marathon Wins a Reprieve • No Decision Yet on Long Beach Marathon • Long Beach Marathon May Get the Axe • Official web site of the Long Beach Marathon
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... Copyright © 2005 by Robert Burnson | |||||||||||||
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