Small Steps on a Trail to Better Health: Executive Director of Sports Backers, Will Dixon
By Will Melton · August 5, 2026 · 30:51 read
Category: Health & Wellness
Show: Americas Healthiest City
Sports Backers sold out the Allianz Richmond Marathon in June, five months before anyone lines up to run in November. On race weekend, the organization puts 22,000 runners on Richmond streets, backed by thousands of volunteers and tens of thousands of spectators. Another 1,400 people meet every week
Sports Backers sold out the Allianz Richmond Marathon in June, five months before anyone lines up to run in November. On race weekend, the organization puts 22,000 runners on Richmond streets, backed by thousands of volunteers and tens of thousands of spectators. Another 1,400 people meet every weekend for 24 weeks just to get ready for it.
Will Dixon runs all of it. He has been with Sports Backers for 19 years and took over as executive director a year and a half ago, after starting as a weekend intern setting up a cross-country meet at Maymont for 3,000 high schoolers. In this episode of America’s Healthiest City podcast, he talks with host Will Melton about what actually gets a region moving — and it has very little to do with finishing a marathon.
We cover the 2012 shift at Sports Backers, when the focus moved from chasing tourism dollars to building an active culture inside Richmond. Dixon walks through what race weekend demands of his team and explains why roughly 60 percent of marathon runners now travel here from outside Virginia, plus why Richmond works so well as a first marathon.
Then we look ahead. The Fall Line trail adds more than 12 miles under construction this coming year, and Dixon describes it as a canvas the region has never had before. He also makes the case that no amount of AI or new technology replaces the feeling of standing at a start line with thousands of other people.
Will Dixon’s advice for anyone stuck at the starting point is simple: Walk to the stop sign and come back. That counts.
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What is one small first step you are taking this week? Tell us in the comments.
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