Every year, the St. Pete Run Fest not only attracts hundreds of runners and walkers, but it also creates hundreds of thousands of dollars in economic impact. This year’s third annual Run fest consisted of several different races including a half marathon, 10K, 5K, 1 mile, and a children’s race. For the third year in a row, Power Design formed a team of runners to participate in multiple races, helping to boost St. Pete’s economy and brand awareness through miles of running.

In an interview with Catalyst, Run Fest’s co-founder, Ryan Jordan explained the direct economic impact this event has had on our community.

“We want people to come to our beautiful city, experience it, and tell others about it and ultimately spend money in our community. The way we gauge that is in terms of number of folks from over 100 miles away. That means they are spending nights in our hotels and time in downtown St. Pete.

It would be more cost-effective to use the Pinellas Trail, or just go up and back on the water. We wanted to show off places like the Innovation District and the Warehouse Arts District and Deuces Live and Grand Central and right down Central Avenue. It’s cool for the city to show off the businesses there and it’s more interesting and motivating from a running experience,” Jordan said.

We couldn’t agree more! Several of our neighbors in the community participated too, including TransAmerica who partnered with Run Fest on the Miles for Meals program. Miles for Meals donates 20-cents per mile to the St. Pete Free Clinic‘s food bank with a goal of providing 4,000+ free meals after the event. The food bank feeds an average of 60,000 hungry community members a month.

We’re excited to see the impact on our community from this event and look forward to participating again next year!