10 STARTING LINESbuzzPhoto: ryan bethkeTim Murphy was hating life as he slogged
through the final miles of the old Heart of San
Diego Marathon at some point in the late 1980s,
marathon’s infamous wall having just jumped
in front of him. “I was hurting so bad,” he says.
“These two girls did everything they could
to keep me going,” says Murphy, who was the
race director of the Carlsbad 5000. “They sang
to me. They talked to me. They talked nasty to
me. And they were two hot babes from La Jolla.”
It was the last marathon he ran. But the
experience made him wonder what a race
organizer could do to fight the tedium of a
marathon—particularly at races where there
were so few spectators on the course.
Years later, in 1995, the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall
of Fame opened in Cleveland, and Murphy
thought, “If I were in Cleveland, I’d put on
the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon, with bands all
over and concerts.”
Murphy paused for a moment. “Then I
wondered, ‘Who wants to go to Cleveland?’”
His next thought was, what about rock ’n’
roll and his hometown, San Diego?
With the help of investors, he created the
Rock ’n’ Roll San Diego Marathon, with bands
performing for runners all along the course.
More than a year before the first race on June
21, 1998, Murphy and his team showed up at
the 100th Boston Marathon, proudly display-
ing their slogan at the expo: “You missed thefirst Boston Marathon. Don’t miss the first
Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon.”
“That was an absolutely genius marketing
ploy,” says road racing historian Toni Reavis.
The Rock ’n’ Roll San Diego Marathon and
Half Marathon, now sponsored by Synchrony
Financial, celebrates its 20th running on June
4, and Murphy is the man credited for think-
ing outside the box.
“Tim changed the paradigm,” says Reavis.
“The marathon was no longer a competition.
It was an experience.”
“That event, from my perspective, was
a turning point,” says Ryan Lamppa, a dis-
tance-running statistician and historian, and
founder of Bring Back the Mile. “I truly believe,
from demographics to finishing numbers, [that]
Rock ’n’ Roll should get the most credit for cre-
ating running’s second boom.”
While the inaugural Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon
broke the record for most participants in a first-
time marathon with nearly 20,000 runners and
walkers, it wasn’t a seamless production. The
start of the first race was delayed 38 minutes
because of a car on the back half of the course.
Water shortages forced spectators to break out
hoses and fill trash cans to help runners. And
some restaurateurs complained about slow
business because of the difficulty accessing
their eateries.
Murphy, though, sent a letter to thefirst-year participants, guaranteeing the prob-
lems would be fixed. Blessed with early June
gloom in 1999, there were no water issues, the
bands were more prominent, cheerleaders
dotted the course and Kenya’s Philip Taurus
won in 2:08:33—then the fastest marathon
time west of the Mississippi River.
The success of the Rock ’n’ Roll San Diego
Marathon coincided with running’s second
boom: In 1995, there were 293,000 marathon
finishers at U.S. races. By 2015, that figure
jumped to 509,000, a 73 percent increase.
Half marathon figures climbed even more
sharply. From 1995 to 2015, finishers increased
from 658,000 to nearly 2 million.
Nearly a third of the first year’s entrants
wore purple singlets, running for the
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Those
runners and walkers raised more than $
million that year, and have gone on to raise
nearly $180 million.
The brand boomed. Today, the Rock ’n’
Roll Marathon Series features 20 U.S. stops
and eight internationally.
“In America, who doesn’t understand rock
’n’ roll?” says Lamppa. “Rock ’n’ roll means
fun and enjoying yourself.”
Twenty years after his dream took off,
Murphy, who sold his business nearly 10
years ago, says, “I’m very proud. By far, it’s
the biggest thing I ever accomplished.”Keep on
RocKing
We look back 20 years ago to the
beginning of the Rock ’n’ Roll
Marathon San Diego, the race that
changed running.
By Don norcrossCM0617_FOB_SL.indd 10 5/11/17 3:21 PM