The organizers of the GO! St. Louis Family Fitness Weekend, April 18 and 19, are proving that good health trumps hard economic times. Registration is up for all of the weekend events — a great sign of the area’s commitment to fitness, even though many of the registration fees increased over last year.

Jeff Trammel of GO! announced today that overall registration was about 10 percent ahead of last year’s record-breaking number of entries. Every race category has seen an increase in participants, with the 4-person marathon relay increasing by 25 percent. The half-marathon, the most popular race, has reached 75 percent of its 10,000-runner capacity.

“The increase in registration entries is a validation of the type of quality event and positive experience we continue to offer participants,” GO! president Nancy Lieberman said in a statement. “In nine years we have grown this event from a few thousand people to an estimated 20,000 in 2009. I believe our model of offering a variety of events for all abilities and ages has had a tremendous impact on our growth and has become a national trend that other races are now adopting.”

The full menu of events:

• Marathon, 26.2 miles
• Half-marathon, 13. 1 miles, presented by National City
• Marathon Relay, in which teams of four take turns running legs of the 26.2-mile course, presented by Lockton Companies
• 5K Run/Walk, 3.1 miles, presented by YMCA of Greater St. Louis
• GO! St. Louis Read, Right and Run Marathon® - presented by Centene Corporation
• Children’s Fun Runs - presented by SUBWAY
• The Mature Mile

I think it says a lot that people are willing to commit more money to fitness. That shows it’s a priority. The number of sponsors also shows that fitness is becoming a corporate priority as well.

The one catch to the rise in popularity is that the organizers have set a cap for the endurance races (marathon, half marathon and marathon relay). The race maximum has been set at 15,000 total endurance participants.

Click here to register or call 314-727-0800.