Run Waterloo hosts socially-distanced 10K

On Sunday, Run Waterloo put on a 10K event while maintaining social distancing guidelines. The elite race, which only included a handful of participants, will have its results compiled alongside the virtual runners. The 10 local elites who got to participate in person started in boxes two metres apart, wore masks for the first 300m (which they were then allowed to discard) and were kept separate at the finish line. 

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Erin Mawhinney is a former McMaster University runner who was one of the participants in Sunday’s race. She says it didn’t feel like a real race, but it also felt much better than the time trials she’s been running solo.

“We ran with seven guys and three girls and did a screening beforehand,” she says. “We also submitted a seed time, so they lined us up according to those times to limit passing. We all warmed up separately and there weren’t any marshals or spectators on the course.” 

Mawhinney says she thinks this could be the future of road racing, at least for the time being. “I think there will be waves of races based on seed times. So road races will essentially become like track meets that are run with heats.” Up next, Mawhinney has a half-marathon time trial to round out her summer training. She’s done a time trial of nearly every distance from the 1K through the half during social isolation – she wants to keep her running well rounded. 

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Jordan Schmidt, the event organizer, explains that this was more of a socially-distanced group run than a race. “We have cancelled our entire calendar so far, but kept this race open as virtual because it has been ongoing since 1978. We had very detailed protocol to ensure distancing which included: provincial screening questionnaires for athletes and our four volunteers, a measured but not certified course, there was no venue and no washrooms, there were no course aids and runners started and remained two metres apart.”

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Schmidt says, “We thought we could bring together a few of our local elites to run together. We essentially just timed a group of runners. This was a very tiny group of people. And we didn’t advertise it at all because we didn’t want people to come out and watch. There weren’t any bibs, no start line, no water table. But the athletes had a really good time.”

Beyond the in-person event, there was a virtual race and 10 mini runs. The mini runs were giving back to runners in the community who’ve participated in Run Waterloo events for years.

“Elites aren’t the only important runners in our community, so the mini runs allowed us to acknowledge seven families who’ve been longtime supporters,” Schmidt says. “These families participated virtually but we sent them kits and prize packs from our local sponsors.” Run Waterloo is even planning on awarding prize money to those who participated. The amount will be determined by the profitability of the virtual event. 

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When it comes to the future of road racing, Schmidt says he isn’t certain how things will pan out. “The big benefit of a running event is bringing people together. But right now we still can’t do that and don’t have concrete plan for our future. We’ve mainly been focusing on providing refunds for the races that we weren’t able to run. In terms of the future of road racing, we still don’t know what the future holds, but I look forward to finding opportunities to engage with our community in small ways, like we did on Sunday.”

In person results