It might be in the spring. It might be in the fall. It might be privately operated. It might be held by the city.

In some incarnation, the Pittsburgh Marathon might be coming back next year.

An effort is under way to hold what would be the 20th running of the 26.2-mile road race in 2008 to coincide with the city's 250th anniversary celebration.

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"We're getting there. We're getting closer. We're working hard," said Michele Fetting, of Fox Chapel, one of those on the forefront of a movement to resurrect the race that wound through the city's neighborhoods beginning in 1985 but was canceled after the 2003 event because of financial problems, including the loss of title sponsor UPMC.

Fetting, 39, a marketing and communications consultant, has run nine Pittsburgh Marathons and formerly was on the Pittsburgh Marathon board.

Also involved are Jennie Rudin, a doctor with West Penn Allegheny Forbes Regional specializing in infectious disease and a runner; and original Pittsburgh Marathon planner and race director Larry Kuzmanko, now director of special events and cultural programs for Allegheny County.

The Pittsburgh Marathon field grew to more than 4,000 runners and at one point was considered to be among the top five marathons in the country. In addition to local and regional recreational runners, the race drew elite runners and was host to various Olympic trials and national championships.

Fetting and Rudin didn't know each other but had similar thoughts last year after coming home from a marathon in Cincinnati. They wrote Mayor Bob O'Connor imploring him to help reinstate the Pittsburgh Marathon and met when O'Connor invited them to a meeting.

Weeks later, though, O'Connor fell ill and died of cancer.

Things stalled temporarily at that point, but the women and Kuzmanko said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has been supportive. Ravenstahl declined comment yesterday while he further investigated the effort to bring back the race.

"The footprints are showing up," Rudin said. "I think in the next two months you're going to hear more.

"Everyone should be clamoring for this."

No date has been set. Organizers like the idea of moving the Pittsburgh Marathon from the first Sunday in May to the fall, but they are concerned about conflicts with Steelers games on the North Shore.

There are all sorts of other obstacles -- Point State Park, the traditional finish, will be under construction next spring, for example -- and many details to nail down, such as rounding up a full contingent of sponsors and organizing volunteers and medical and safety staff.

Kuzmanko characterized the progress as "somewhere near second base."

More than 20 years ago, Kuzmanko, after writing a paper on the impact of events such as marathons, went to Mayor Richard Caliguiri to get things started. "It was an idea to bring all the neighborhoods together and promote health and wellbeing," Kuzmanko said.

An idea he insists has never died.

"People still come up and ask me if the marathon will be run again," Kuzmanko said.

At 50, he's not willing to take on the time-consuming lead role again.

"I don't think I have the synergy or tenacity that I had all those years ago, but I am happy to try to get this thing going and to assist," he said.