About

The City Of Trees Marathon Association Inc started with it’s first race; The City Of Trees Marathon in 2002.  Our theme was “New in 2002″  In 2003 we offered the Fit For Life Half Marathon partially as a training run for the 2003 City Of Trees Marathon, partially to use up supplies left over from the City Of Trees 2002, and partially because we needed to expand our offerings in order to make the City Of Trees Marathon a success.  2004 was an expansion year to say the least, and we offered 12 events, mostly just to see what would stick in the valley and beyond.  Since 2004 we have honed our offerings into three major categories, Trail Runs, Road Races, and Festival events or Fun Runs.  The Les Bois Trail Running Series was created as a Gran Prix Style race series where the three trail runs have been combined to determine series winners, and also to give discounts to those who would like to run all three trail races.  The same can be said for the City Of Trees Road Racing Series, where we offer two Gran Prix Series using the Fit For Life Events, The Payette Lake Run events, and finally the City Of Trees Marathon Events, a “short” series consisting of a 10K-8.6 mile-Half Marathon, and a “long” series consisting of a Half-30K-Marathon.  Not only can these races be used to compete, but they are strategically placed so they can be used as training runs to compliment each other for the end goal of the City Of Trees Marathon Events.  Kind of an “All Path’s lead to the City Of Trees Marathon”.

We have worked hard to replace events or event sites that just didn’t work, or weren’t available any longer.  In 2006 we moved the popular Fit For Life Event from Albertson’s General Haedquarters to Hawks Memorial Stadium.  The finish line at Albertson’s was wonderful, but we kind of out grew our surroundings, paving the way to a beautiful one of a kind home plate finish and baseball themed run.  The wonderful facilities at the Stadium accomadate our parking, event, spectators, and start and finish perfectly.  In 2007 we moved the popular Les Bois 10 trail run to Fort Boise park as we immediately out grew the 8th street extension area and the poor interpretive center was overwhelmed by cars in it’s parking lot, so we had to bus people in.  This wasn’t a good fit, so the race was moved to a better home (Fort Boise).  In 2006 we were forced to look at the impact of the City Of Trees Marathon on the downtown construction boom.  Condominiums and Apartments were being built accross the street from the host hotel we used, as well as the capital renovation really squeezed the roadway along the course.  After enhancing the course a couple of times to accomodate, we decided it was best to move it to East Boise, where it resides today.  Also in 2006 the group that put on the Payette Lake Run for 29 years, offered it to us told manage and make it a part of our race series.  We couldn’t be happier than to take this traditional Memorial Weekend race and offer it as a part of our series.  It fits in so nicely with what we were already doing.  The Payette Lake Run was a favorite of ours for years, so even though we were only given four weeks to take over the event before the starting gun went off, we made the most of it.  This race is simply everything you could want in a race, from paved and non paved surfaces to the beautiful Payette Lake as a backdrop for most of the run.  It truly is on of Idaho’s most beautiful places to run.  2009 was a bad year for the Tamarack Resort, forcing them to close, leaving us without a spot to hold our Tamarack Trail Run.  A runner from the Dry Creek Half Marathon suggested that we inspect the Kuna desert, out by the Birds of Prey area.  We found a peferct place in the desert and changed the name of the Tamarack Trail Run to the High Desert Trail Run.  It offers breath taking views of lake lowell, the Boise Front, The Squaw Butte in Emmett, and of course the desert scenery surrounding the event.

We looking forward to hold fun, competitive events for years to come, as we feel our flexibility is one of the things that is not only a challenge, but it keeps everything fresh for the participant.

The City Of Trees Marathon Association Inc, is a non-profit 501 (c)3 corporation.  We make charitable contributions or are partners with local chairitable benefactors such as Make-A-Wish Treasure Valley, Operation Warm Heart from MHAFB, The Payette Little Ski Hill, Girls on The Run, and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.