Masser 5-Miler kicks off virtual Summer Racing Series

For the first time in 30 years, the Seashore Striders Summer Racing Series will begin with a virtual race, the Masser 5-Miler, and move into June and July with virtual events making up the series. August may be different, and no one really knows what it will look like; so much depends on how the three reopening phases go and whether positive cases decline. As far as the series goes, August is a wait-and-see as to whether it will be virtual or a live event. The series will begin with the Masser as the kickoff event of the 30th annual summer series, starting Sunday, May 24, in any location, any town and any state. The Summer Racing Series will have a much different look this time around. Events are being finalized as we go to print, and runners can keep checking the Seashore Striders website, www.seashorestriders.com, for updates or find Seashore Striders Running on Facebook.  

Dimmer switch

Road races throughout the country may be given the green light in July, but that does not mean every race director will open up and start hosting races in right away. As a race director for 30 years, I am going to conduct my events using a dimmer switch rather than an on/off switch and ease into a new set of safety guidelines for the road racing world. There has been a lot of talk from top race directors, RRCA, and USATF, and I have virtually attended many of them. They all center around getting the runners back racing on the roads. There is a lot more to conducting an event than the participants think, and I do not feel really comfortable exposing my volunteers to events where there are so many unknowns and not even a vaccine as yet. Sports that gather large groups, like football games, soccer games, cross country invitationals and many more, may be up in the air as to whether they can begin in the fall with so much still unknown about the virus – no cure, no vaccine. Maybe we’ll all become golfers!

CV-19 Team Challenge

The Striders kicked off the Team Challenge May 6 and currently have 240 participants making up 80 teams that have raised close to $6,000 for five nonprofits. Teams of three are required, with each team member handling two of the same distances that were offered in April’s Coronavirus 6-Pack Series, as well as completing a 5-miler on May 24. The team challenge event will have male, female, coed and K9 divisions. There is a donation requirement to one of the five nonprofits as well as a volunteer piece as well; examples include giving blood, making a mask or dropping off canned goods to the Striders collection box.

Registration remains open for the challenge at www.seashorestriders.com.