The Decline in North-Central Florida of Marathons and Half-Marathons

It dismays me that, at least in north-central Florida where I live (the Gainesville-Ocala area), a thriving distance-running race scene that enjoyed large public support has dwindled into much-smaller-scale events held completely within parks and on converted bike trails.  When I rediscovered distance running around 2007, Gainesville had just begun its annual LifeSouth Five Points of Life marathon and half-marathon, held each February.  The course wound up and down city streets, and included downtown Gainesville and the University of Florida campus, at one point passing through their football stadium.  At the same time, Ocala had in January its own marathon/half marathon race.  Its course went south of town (start and finish near the Paddock Mall) through hilly horse country, where large estates and fields featured many thoroughbred racing horses.  I ran Gainesville's Five Points races...all half-marathon distance...six times with 2022 being their final year.  As for Ocala I finished its marathon in 2011 and half-marathon in 2013...I'm not sure when they stopped holding their races.  During this time I also drove to more distant locales for their own half-marathons (DeLeon Springs, Palm Coast and Tavares).  None of these are held anymore, either.  The only distance races in my area are organized by either the Florida Track Club, US Road Running, or Lloyd Clarke Sports, and they...as I mentioned before...tend to confine themselves to out-of-the-way places.  I like the buzz of big-city distance races, and I like to jog in my living room watching You-Tube virtual runs of some of these races (NYC Marathon is easily my favorite).  I have yet to run a race outside the state of Florida, but I'm retired now so it shouldn't be too hard to hop on a plane and make a weekend go at it visiting my targeted city.  But it doesn't look as if, at least where I live, public marathons and half-marathons are going to make a comeback anytime soon.  I've tried to get myself into an annual tradition as different organizations like Haven Hospice, Taccachale, the Sarantos and Meridian would start an annual race, only to cancel its continuation two or three years down the line.  That, of course, is their privilege and choice...too bad, though, because I would have liked to continue participating in those runs. Last November I finished my second-ever marathon race with a group that has since ceased holding their events twice a year on the eastern Hawthorne Trail.  They're gone now, but at least I got my marathon in!  Now the only marathon left in north-central Florida is a January event run by the Florida Track Club, but they are elitist about runners who take more than five hours to complete it.  That doesn't work for me, seeing that at age 68 I completed last November's marathon in 5 hours 7 minutes...