The best race of 2020 (Family Reunion Virtual 5k)

It's been almost a year since my last post and what a year 2020 has been. It would be an understatement to write that it's been eventful but that's what I'm going with. There are a multitude of reasons that I haven't written, but more than a few that bring me back to the keyboard. Not the least of which is a package my grandma (paternal) sent me the other day. My grandpa (maternal) was an editor and columnist for the Flint Journal for many years. He passed away when I was just a couple years old, so my best way of getting to know him has been through the saved columns. A while back someone in the family (there are many suspects to choose from if you know the McHale family) got the idea to put together a sort of "greatest hits" collection of his columns and turn it into a book. I've owned a copy for years now and have read through it more than a couple times. That's how I've come to know Grandpa Terry and even my mom, aunts, and uncles better. Anyway, this is all to say that I was sent a collection of laminated columns that someone had kept for 35+ years. There were a few I'd never seen before, including his thoughts on how many hugs are necessary a day. (Mila and I try and hit that number now) I'd already been thinking of writing before, but that package really spurred me on.

But, what to write about? This is supposed to be a running blog and I try to keep things in that vein. I came up with half a dozen ideas and many of those might be upcoming but I decided that my first post back will be about my favorite race of 2020.

For those of you non-runners, the running world was just as hard hit by COVID as many other sectors of life. Most races were cancelled and many race directors were forced to pivot to virtual races. I'm sure I'll write about my virtual race experiences and thoughts in an upcoming post. However, it did give me an idea.

I forgot that I even grew a mustache for a bit

I forgot I grew a mustache for a bit early on

My extended family includes plenty of runners, walkers, and/or generally fit people. We're also spread across a few states and, like many of you, have had to resort to Zoom and FaceTime for family "gatherings." I came up with the idea of a virtual race between the families. After workshopping it with my brothers, we came up with a team run/saunter 5k with scoring similar to a cross country meet. It was presented to the family in the hopes that we'd get maybe 10-15 of them to join in. We ended up getting 26. We ended up taking everyone's predicted 5k time and putting them into pots. From there we drew the teams much in the way that FIFA tries to balance the group stages of major tournaments - one team member from each pot. Theoretically, and if people were able to run to their estimated time, the teams would be very even. That was the plan anyway.

Thinking through how to best do this

Since we had so many walkers (which we dubbed "saunterers"), we decided to split the race into two - runners and saunterers. Each would have their own race and points system. We also started in April. Competitors would have until June 10th to turn in their best time. I didn't require proof and I'm glad that no one cheated. Or, I at least didn't catch them.

During a time when Mila was literally stuck in Panama due to the pandemic and my job became part-time teleworking while I waited to be able to move, the race became a big focus for me. I built this website and kept telling all of my coworkers about this "awesome" race. I'd just taken on that annoying runner habit of constantly running my mouth (get it?) about this race.

It turned out bigger and better than expected. We, of course, had some hurdles (some that I accidentally set up for myself and some unexpected) to clear. However, thanks to my family we had plenty of friendly trash talking, competitiveness, and fantastic participation I'd consider it a rousing success. There were enough runners and saunterers for me to be able to consistently update the results page on our site. This helped stoke some competitive fires that I didn't even know existed. We had to do some last minute recruiting and even brought Jammie in from outside the family, but the teams were extremely competitive with only 11 points separating first place from last. I even learned a new word in Spanish (a mitomano is a sandbagger)!

Grandma getting her 5k in

I'm going to leave some of the pics at the end here. I'm pretty sure we plan on doing this series of races again this spring/summer and may even expand our reach. I will likely not have as much time as I did last year to manage things but at least I've got the groundwork set. I also hope to start writing more often in here. Glad to be back!