GALETON – Excitement is building as one of the oldest and most challenging distance running events in the eastern United States celebrates its golden anniversary this year. The God’s Country Marathon, scheduled for June 7 on the Galeton-to-Coudersport course, will be one for the books!

Organizers are planning some special events to mark the 50th year. Among guests who are expected to converge at the courthouse square finish line are the course record-holder Terry Stanley, race founder Ralph Wentz, and some other notables. As always, runners will answer the starter’s gun at Galeton Area School, progress to U.S. Rt. 6 and “conquer” the grueling course up and over Denton Hill enroute to the courthouse square finish line.

Marathon runners will step off from the Galeton Area School parking lot at 7 am. Half-marathon participants lined up at Denton Hill State Park will answer the starter’s gun at 8 am.

Spectators are invited to turn out along the course to cheer on runners. An awards ceremony will take place at 12:30 pm.

Roots of the marathon trace back to the early 1970s, when Paul Marraccini, a Monongahela, Pa., physical education teacher, who regularly visited Potter County for outdoor adventures, was shooting the breeze at the latter’s Nine Mile Store. Marraccini had been bitten by the bug as distance running began to take hold across the nation.

Marraccini held the ear of Ralph Wentz, executive director of the county’s tourist promotion agency, who listened intently, his wheels turning. It wasn’t long before these two can-do men hatched a plan: capitalize on the running fad by creating a certified 26.2-mile marathon course that crossed over the Eastern Continental Divide through some of the most striking scenery in the Northeast.

By its fifth year, the God’s Country Marathon drew just under 500 runners from more than half of the states in the U.S. and at least two foreign countries. A half-century later, the God’s Country Marathon lives on, albeit with fewer runners. “Conquer the Hill” remains its enduring theme.

While very few people set out to win the marathon, all finishers will receive a commemorative 50th year anniversary medal this year.

For more information on the God’s Country marathon, visit https://rungcm.com/.