BOSTON—The annual Boston, Ga. Half Marathon and Festival took place on Saturday, and the City saw a huge turnout of vendors, runners, and parade entrants.

With the City taking over the half marathon this year, residents were eager to make the run and festival successful, just as in years past.

Logan Smith, who helped chair the event has heard nothing but good feedback about the day.

“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from runners, vendors, community members,  and council members,” he said. “We really haven’t had any negative feedback.”

Smith said he was happy to report that numbers indicated it was the best turnout in 18 years, crowd and vendor-wise.

“We ended up with 191 registered and 154 participating,” Smith said. “We also had 46 vendors and 40 parade applicants.”

Business owners and vendors alike shared an influx of patrons throughout the day.

“All of the vendors stayed busy throughout the day and the business owners said they had a good amount of clientele, which is great for Boston,” Boston Police Department Chief Charles Pettus said.

While attendees shopped and dined, runners from all across Georgia trotted through the back roads of Boston, taking in the beautiful pastures and morning dew, hoping to win the Half Marathon, 5K, or walk.

Gary Rowan took home first place in the Half Marathon, finishing with a time of 1:17:03. Rowan finished an entire minute faster than last year’s winner, who had a time of 1:18:15. The first female finisher was Stephanie Liles-Weyant, who finished 10th overall with a time of 1:33:49.

In the 5K run, Hudson Champion of Pavo took first with a time of 19.16, also beating out last year’s first-place winner, who had a time of 19.45. Marina Byrd was the first-place female runner with a time of 22:26.

While the event was a success, Pettus hopes to improve on planning next year.

“We put this together in about 2.5 half months, including during Hurricane Debbie and Hurricane Helene,” he said. “It threw some kinks in the planning, so if we had more time to plan, advertise, and get the run out there it would be good.”

Smith would also like to move up the Friday night concert kickoff, as he said they had numerous runners pick up their packets early, but not return for the concert due to the timing.

Overall, Pettus and Smith were pleased with the event, as the ultimate goal was to keep the marathon a tradition and encourage tourists to continue to visit Boston, Ga.

The duo is already looking forward to next year and reminds everyone to mark their calendar for the last Saturday in October.