As we sat in a planning session for the Turkey Trot back in September, we knew this year was going to look a little different. Our 4,000 runners were going to be tough in a COVID environment. We reached out to the City and it was going to be nearly impossible to get permits based on our numbers and would require a complete restructuring of our race to comply to new standards. So we went virtual – or as I so lovingly refer to it as “the fake race of 2020”.
Virtual marathons are every where right now and our sponsors said they would stay with us if we held a virtual race, (with all money going to charity) so we jumped on the virtual bandwagon. And I learned, it’s surprisingly time consuming to hold a fake race. Although day of race organization didn’t take place, everything else remained the same: Working with sponsors, marketing, website updates, giveaways, packet pickup organization. We even went as far as to outline three potential courses that people could run along local canals on their own or run in their own neighborhoods for whatever distance they felt comfortable with.
Our little family has participated in this event (mostly the family fun run) for years and I finally have two kids that are conditioned well enough to run the 5K – so we ran along some local trails. Although, I use “we” loosely. Steve, Hallie and Hunter ran while I rode a long board, and Briggs and Cannon rode scooters and Bennett ran some and walked some. It felt weird not waking up before the sun was up to go set up a race – but it was also an oddly relaxing morning. We loved keeping the tradition alive in our family and hopefully next year we will be able to gather again!
