Field day 2020 a virtual success

I teamed with four great elementary teachers in the Cape Henlopen School District to produce 25 field day videos that were pushed out to hundreds of Cape kids who have been trapped inside since mid-March wanting to just get out and run.  

“Thank you for your hard work in the planning of the virtual field day,” said parent Katie Sherman. “It was so well planned and thought out! You all made every one of those kids’ day. I’d say virtual field day 2020 was a huge success!”

All around the district, from Gills Neck Road in Lewes to downtown Milton to West Rehoboth, Angola and Lincoln, kids were outside this past week doing the spoon race, the sack race, the three-legged race, running relays around their house, counting how many basketball dribbles they can get in a minute, and doing the tug of war. Twenty-five videos were placed on a Dan Cook aerial photo of Legends Stadium with an emoji attached to each event. Click on the emoji and the video with a demonstration is displayed with a Cape team of myself, Lindsey Underwood, Connie Bean, Rich Lantz and Kathy Lynch demonstrating the events. A list of equipment needed, a homemade certificate maker, and a scoresheet were also placed on the website. More than 100 videos were sent in on a flip grid for the district to view, and I have to say that even through a worldwide crisis, the Cape elementary family was able to continue the tradition of field day. At year 29, I never thought in a million years I would be teaching as we are, but what a great team I had to work with, and what great kids we have in the Cape family.  

Local Back On Your Feet Challenge

Local Martin West wants to unleash a challenge toward the end of the summer that he hopes will catch on locally, and inspire runners and walkers to join him along his journey. Martin would begin the entire event alone, which he feels “is much more inspiring to see a runner tackle a challenge by themselves.” The basic rules are pretty simple.  Each runner must start the competition at one mile, then increase the mileage per week by one mile (one mile the first week, two miles the second week, three miles the third week, etc.). The runner must add one mile to the total distance covered on the running day until the runner quits, which is when funds would be distributed to the runner’s choice of a charity. Each runner would state their charity of choice before starting their runs. Then in the end, post how much money they raised, and prove in a public forum of some sort like Facebook and the website where the donation was made. All of the runs must be documented using RunKeeper. A shirt will be mailed to each runner before they get started. Each runner must wear that shirt for every run and snap a photo of themselves wearing the shirt after the run. They must then post that photo along with the screenshot of their running stats via RunKeeper to their Facebook page and also the Back On Your Feet FB page. Any runner in Delaware can jump in and get involved at any time. This challenge is based on distance, not speed. West has already decided his charity will be La Esperanza, a nonprofit in Georgetown that helps Spanish-speaking immigrants and Latin Americans find work, housing and transportation. They also help victims of rape, violence, etc. More information can be found at www.laesperanzacenter.org. More on this interesting challenge in the coming weeks and a famous dog named Marvin the Mastiff who will be accompanying West.

Seashore Striders Racing Series

The Seashore Striders Racing Series is set up to go virtual through the summer with hope that the dimmer-switch lights will get brighter and brighter as we inch back to normal racing. We are currently in Phase 1 with guidelines of social distancing and masks in group gatherings. Normal race experiences like race-day registration, gatherings at the starting line, computerized race results, awards ceremonies and refreshments are just some of the items that have been removed from events that make millions of dollars for so many charities and communities. If you remove all these items, things just do not seem like a normal race experience to me. In my 30 years as a race director, I find that the No. 1 item people enjoy in a small-town event is the social aspect. Not the course, not the results, not the T-shirt, not the medal. What folks enjoy the most is the gathering, talking, laughing, telling stories, enjoying the food and just plain socializing with people who have something in common – the love of running.

Seashore Striders Virtual Summer Racing Series

June 13-14 - Inaugural Beebe Heroes 5K

June 20-21 - 30th Father’s Day 5K

June 27-28 - 16th Jungle Jim’s 5K Splash 

July 4-5 - 30th Beach Paper Firecracker 5K 

July 11-12 - 13th Run for the Ribbon 5K

July 11-14 - 38th Seashore 5 Miler 

July 25-26 - 23rd Run for JJ 5K 

Aug. 1-2 - 37th Dam Mill 5K 

Aug. 8-9 - 12th Run for the Paws 5K 

Switching from Seashore Striders virtual to Seashore Striders live racing will depend upon the restrictions that are lifted.  

Finish Chute

The Bethany Beach Firecracker 5K Run/Walk to be held on Fourth of July weekend has moved to a virtual event. The run and walk will be from Friday, July 3 to Sunday, July 5, and can be done anywhere you like. All donations benefit the Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company’s purchase of a much-needed biomist sanitizer machine to be used on equipment after transport of COVID-19 patients. For more information, go to focusmultisports.com. All special events in Bethany Beach have been canceled through July 15 by order of the town council.

Races2Run will host the Phase 1 5K Run/Walk at Hudson Fields in Milton Saturday, July 4. There will be 10 waves of 25 participants going off beginning at 7:30 a.m. For more information, go to races2run.com.

The second SoDel Cares 5K Run/Walk scheduled for Saturday, June 13, has been postponed to a date to be announced.

I have been on many Zoom calls with fall race clients and some folks with ties to the larger fall events (marathons and half-marathons), and the common theme of the calls has been “What if it [the virus] comes back in the fall?” or “What if the large events bring it back?” as well as the simple question that is usually asked during the call by someone, “Is it worth the risk without a vaccine?” All very tough questions, answers and conversations to have … but for now I’m out!