In Limbo?
We are Back!
Kind of.
We were of course, really hoping we could be back in full force by now, and though that is not yet the case, we are going into 2021 feeling optimistic!
Though we are not out of the woods yet, things are slowly starting to come back. Race directors and event organizers are finding new ways to fulfill their communities needs, while keeping safety of the runners at the forefront of their minds. Things like Strava, Garmin, Zoom and other social media, did wonders to keep running groups and training partners connected during the quarantine.
Virtual events have all but taken over in 2020! Which may have been the only thing that kept us runners (and race directors) from going completely stir crazy during this pandemic. Rather than letting all that hard earned fitness from months of training go completely to waste, virtual events were there to save the day (more like the year) and give runners something to look forward to. Thank you technology!
For the 2020 Big’s Backyard Ultra, an internationally attended event, runners from outside the U.S. couldn’t participate at the race in-person. So to accommodate the runners, 21 different countries had their own satellite backyard ultras going on at the same time. The race was live streamed on the Big Dog’s Backyard Facebook page. The teams used Zoom to stream live feeds from every race taking place around the world. Those streams were then streamed to the Big Dog’s Backyard Facebook page.
Organizing this already unique event in the chaos of 2020, provided an opportunity for some very creative problem solving. In an interview with Runners World Magazine race director, Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell expressed the following.
“This year gives us a chance to do something we haven’t done before. You can’t bring entire teams from a country normally because there’s not enough space for that in one race, so this will have countries competing against each other. The athletes really get into competing nation against nation.”
We are still seeing the large, more famous, events being greatly affected by the uncertainty of 2021. The Boston Marathon announced the postponement of their event from April to the fall of next year. And more of the big spring events are expected to follow in their footsteps.
As a smaller running company, moving forward we plan to only hold events if they can be done in a safe manner. Meaning for now we will be focusing on virtual events, staggered starts, participant limits, and of course, appropriate social distancing.
On the bright side, new unique races are popping up left and right to combat the restrictions caused by this pandemic, and in turn shaking up the running world. It will be an interesting year of racing in 2021!
For now we hope you stay safe, stay positive, and KEEP RUNNING!
With love,
-Brunning Endurance Company