Aravaipa has been fortunate to hold 3 recent in-person events: Silverton Alpine Marathons, Kendall Mountain, and Tushars Mountain Runs. Read below as RD’s Julie and Noah recount the experience.
From Julie:
Rather than ‘you never know what you have until it’s gone,’ these races were ‘you never know how much you missed something until it’s back!’ Silverton Alpine and Kendall Mountain were our first in-person races since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and it was incredible to be back to in-person races. There were many changes to the race experience for staff and runners alike. In typical ultra-runner fashion, participants adapted better than we could have hoped.
Saturday morning, just before sunrise, participants in wave 1 began arriving for Silverton Alpine Marathons. They had their temperature checked by the medical staff then took their place at the starting line on one of 10 spaces, 6 feet apart – of course. I’ll admit it felt weird initially. There was no mass of runners high-fiving, music and adrenaline pumping. But then there emerged a new pattern: runners began chatting with other runners they didn’t know instead of staying isolated with their group of friends. There was laughter at this odd scene that is the new normal for the foreseeable future. As a race director, I felt that I had the opportunity to actually interact with participants as they asked questions rather than shout to a group via a microphone. This was different, but it was fun.
I anticipated chaos with runners forgetting their wave start, not wanting to wear a mask, grouping despite the social distancing restrictions. But the 2-hour start proceeded smoothly and efficiently. This isn’t to say that there wasn’t room for improvement- one area that proved to be challenging was race week registrations and drops. Assigning new participants a wave start time and tracking last minute drops involved several pages of handwritten notes I apologetically handed over to Andy, our timer. Yikes. We are still working to simplify and streamline this process, but each race is a little better than the last.
I can’t describe how it felt to see so many familiar faces, and meet so many new ones. With the stress and uncertainty of the last few months I didn’t even realize how much seeing someone in-person, even without a physical hug, can mean. To be able to hold these events in a manner that reduced or eliminated the risk of transmission was just what I needed this summer.
If you participated in Silverton Alpine or Kendall Mountain and have feedback for us, we would love to hear it! Please send any comments to julie@aravaiparunning.com. I look forward to seeing you in the near future, for a socially distanced but still interactive in-person race!
From Noah-
Runners from around the nation joined us for the sixth edition of the Tushars Mountain Runs. It was the third year with Aravaipa Running at the helm and the first real “hot” year as runners went without any rain all weekend or snow on course.
2020 has been the catalyst for a lot of “firsts” and that was no different in Beaver, Utah for our race. Runners were required to wear face coverings, socially distance at all times, temperature checks were performed to admit runners to a small and spacious wave start and our aid stations were a bit different from the traditional trail running buffet.
Tushars is definitely one of my favorite races to direct. Not only is it stunningly beautiful, but it is also incredibly challenging, for participants and staff alike. The logistics behind this event, with remote aid stations and limited access, always necessitates some flexibility and quick thinking. This year it started immediately with a disabled truck blocking access to the road to half of the aid stations and crew access points before the event even started! A quick change was made to have aid station workers drive the 2.5 hour loop to the first aid station, fortunately arriving just 15 minutes before the first runner.
The warm weather and COVID measures certainly didn’t slow down the field this year! We witnessed five course records go down including our first 100 Km runner eclipsing the 12-hour mark as Jimmy Elam smashed the old course record by more than an hour. It’s always an adventure at Tushar’s Mountain Runs, and I’m already looking forward to next year!
