Avocado Half Marathon and 5K postponed again and leaving Fallbrook, San Diego County

The Avocado Half Marathon and 5K, originally scheduled for May 28 in Fallbrook and then postponed to Sept. 24, will not be run this year and will have a new location when it is held in 2017.

Andrew Pettersen, who put on the race in 2014 and 2015 in Fallbrook and was organizing this year's race as CEO of GMP Marketing, notified registered runners on Tuesday, Sept. 13, that he was once again changing the date for the third running of the race. The new date is Feb. 25, 2017, and the town hosting it will be outside of San Diego County.

In announcing the first postponement last May, Pettersen cited "unforeseen permitting issues with the County of San Diego" as the reason for the date change. In the letter/press release emailed to "participants and supporters" on Sept. 13, he again targeted the county's permitting process.

The letter includes the following: "We are heartbroken that we have to change the date and move the September 24, 2016 race in Fallbrook. We have truly given everything we have and are financially and emotionally drained dealing with the County of San Diego that promised us that this race would be an 'annual event' and become easier to put on when in fact it has only become more difficult in year three.

"We were so proud to say that we were only one of two races in San Diego County unincorporated communities (the other being San Dieguito half marathon), but we have come to realize fully why this is the case. The County, namely (the) Department of Public Works, makes it near impossible with a never ending check list we must comply to, even if it’s not in the permit application, all the way up to event day.

"For example, in year 1 we received our permit at 5:05 p.m. the night before the event. In year 2 we received the permit 48 hours prior to the start of the event. For an event like this to be able to continue without going deeply in debt like others before us have discovered, we feel the best thing for this race and our runners is to move it to a place where the city permitting group works with us not against us. We did the impossible by putting on this race not once, but twice!! It is a miracle and we are proud to say that we overcame."

Race organizers told the Village News that the county's requirements to get a permit for the race have changed each year. First year requirements included the gathering of signatures from Fallbrook residents stating either support or opposition for the race as well as mailing out informational notices to residents who lived along the race route. Requirements to put the race on the second year included going in front of Fallbrook Community Planning Group to ask for approval, which organizers eventually received in an unanimous vote. The mailer notices were also required.

This year, Petersen said race organizers were told by county officials that in order to get a permit, they needed to go door-to-door to the approximately 1,400 homes and businesses along the six-mile route (it's an out-and-back course) to gather signatures in either support or opposition of the race. If the race didn't garner 60 percent approval, the permit would not be granted.

Pettersen, who contracted with the national non-profit Fueled by the Fallen to manage the race the second year, also said he was told by the county that he needed to have a new non-profit as a partner for this year's race.

"We were told we had to use one of the 140-plus non-profits from [Fallbrook] even though in year two they allowed us to use Fueled by the Fallen," said Pettersen. "In year two we gave money not to just Fueled by the Fallen, but also to REINS Therapeutic Horsemanship Program. We have given to multiple groups."

Alex Bell, group communications officer for the county of San Diego's Land Use and Environment Group, disputed Pettersen's claims in an email to the Village News.

"Both of Mr. Petterson’s claims (regarding the door-to-door polling and the non-profit) are completely untrue, and it’s unfortunate that he’s misrepresenting his interactions with County staff in this way," said Bell, adding that officials from the DPW contacted Fueled By The Fallen representatives by phone and via a letter stating that they needed a written permit for the "special event" and that "an application was never submitted."

Pettersen said Fueled By The Fallen officials were surprised to hear from the DPW since it was already relayed to them that they couldn't be the non-profit for this year's race.

"We've put this event on for two years," said Pettersen. "It was a struggle, a very hard thing to do, but we did it. This year it was supposed to be easier, and it got 100 times harder."

Bell again took exception to Pettersen's comments that the county was making the permitting process more difficult.

"The Department of Public Works (DPW) has a checklist of requirements for events that propose to close public streets – those requirements have not changed since the 2014 and 2015 Avocado Half Marathons," said Bell in an email. "There are hundreds of events held each year in the unincorporated county that successfully meet these requirements.

"With any event that proposes closure of public streets, there is an obligation to notify the surrounding community who would be impacted. DPW received dozens of complaints from the community related to the previous two Avocado Half Marathons indicating the event organizers did not provide adequate prior notification of the street closures for the event. The road closures from past Avocado Half Marathons have been very impactful to local residents including cutting off access to and from some residences for over four hours. County staff reiterated to the applicant after both the 2014 and 2015 events that due to the impacts their event causes to local residents, timely submittal of a traffic plan and adequate notification to the neighboring community was necessary.

"After the event date was moved from May to September 2016, County staff reached out to the organizers with the new timeline for the application package submittal. Over the past few months DPW staff repeatedly reached out to the event organizers of the Avocado Half Marathon requesting that, should they want to hold the event, they must submit a completed application. The applicant never submitted a completed application for this event, and our attempts to reach out to the organizers were frequently met with no response."

The debate between Pettersen and the DPW is now a moot point since Pettersen is moving the Avocado Half Marathon and 5K.

In the letter to runners, Pettersen said his group "searched high and low for a place to move this race to that is not within County property. We are in final stages of the permit process with a local community that is welcoming the Avocado Half Marathon and 5K with open arms and are very excited to bring this event to their city."

Pettersen said the new location would be announced "very soon."

The letter to the registered runners also included detailed information about how to obtain a refund if they did not want to participate in the rescheduled race.

Pettersen said he is disappointed the race is leaving Fallbrook.

"The town has been supporting this event," said Pettersen. "We know that because of the amount of runners we've had from Fallbrook, all the volunteers we've had from Fallbrook, and the support we received from businesses in Fallbrook. The problem is getting the permits. It has nothing to do with the people in town. It has to do with the county because that's who owns the roads."