Mar. 14—While a number of major marathons have been moved or outright canceled this year, the Glass City Marathon will continue as scheduled — but with additional coronavirus-related requirements that organizers say are reasonable safety measures for an in-person race next month.
Organizers announced this week that runners must either test negative for coronavirus within 72 hours of the April 25 races or provide proof of full vaccination dated at least two weeks before the event to participate.
The announcement was naturally polarizing on social media channels, though race director Clint McCormick said the measures are simply due diligence to keep the race safe and on schedule.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Mr. McCormick said. “I work closely with the health department and Mercy Health is our title sponsor. There wasn’t [any] ‘You have to do this or we’re pulling permits’ kind of language, but we’ve been talking about how we could do this the right way as the bellwether event.
“This is what we believe is the right way.”
Most of the complaints centered around the timing of the announcement — six weeks before the event — and the outdoor nature of a marathon, but Mr. McCormick said the event is working to make the additional step as painless as possible.
Organizers have run nearly a dozen smaller races to stress test their procedures for picking up race packets, organizing water stops, and changing corral procedures to keep participants spaced out on the course.
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Runners will have three full days to get packets, double the amount of pickup time as in a normal year, and Mr. McCormick said the event is working “feverishly” to make testing available for runners when they pick up their packets.
Should any runner not want to go through the extra steps, Mr. McCormick said there are more than 500 people on waiting lists and the regular system in place for runners to sell their bibs to others if they cannot or chose not to run.
“If you’re training for 16 weeks and in week 12 you hurt yourself and can’t participate, we have a mechanism in place to sell your bib,” he said. “That way, you’re compensated and somebody else gets to run. It’s standard practice and something we’ve had in place for more than 10 years.”
The Glass City Marathon’s flat course often leads to fast times, making it a favorite course among hardcore runners to qualify for bigger races like Boston or New York.
Many other marathons, though, have seen changes to their original plans this year.
The Boston Marathon, which is normally held the third Monday of April, was pushed back to September, while the Dallas Marathon moved from May to December. The Cleveland Marathon will be run at a to-be-determined date — instead of in May — during the fall, while the popular Big Sur (Calif.) Marathon canceled entirely for 2021.
Monroe County native Amy Hempel plans to run her first “real” marathon next month. She trained for the 2020 event, which was canceled in-person, and said she doesn’t mind the extra steps.
“To be honest with you, is it an inconvenience? Yeah, a little bit — but I’m still so excited that we’re getting back to normal and having a real race,” she said. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do and I’ll do it happily.”
Mrs. Hempel said she was thankful to receive an email that detailed a path forward instead of one that moved the race.
“There’s going to be a million races in the fall, and Glass City is an April race,” she said. “This is when we do it. I’m just super thrilled and very thankful for all the hard work [organizers] have done.”
The various races throughout the day will be run with limited numbers of participants. The marathon (1,500 racers) and half marathon (2,500) are sold out, though there are still places among the 5K (1,500) and five-person relay (250 teams).
Regular testing has been ingrained in all pro and college sports, while high schools have generally limited testing to symptomatic suspected cases.
Major League Baseball plans to test all players and on-field personnel at least every other day throughout the 2021 season; the PGA Tour said this week that it will continue testing players for the foreseeable future.
Division I colleges — even for outdoor sports like cross country and golf — test entire teams multiple times per week based on conference protocols.
Given that the marathon is a competition, Mr. McCormick said the new measures are in line with other major sporting events.
“I think people have to realize we are all athletes who are competing in a competition,” he said. “I think if participants start to think about themselves more as athletes than just fun runners, I think that will help them understand that what we were doing is following the national standards that are already in place.”
First Published March 13, 2021, 4:27pm
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