Runners take off at the start of the 2019 Elementary Schools Fitness Run at Mill Race Park.
The Republic file photo
After the 2020 Elementary School Fitness Run, Walk and Roll was canceled because of the COVID pandemic, measures were put into place to ensure more social distancing when the event returned last year.
Those social distancing measures will remain in place for this year’s 41st Annual event, which will begin at 10 a.m. May 7 at Mill Race Park. There is no cost to enter.
“Last year, because of COVID, we changed the courses,” race director Randy Stafford said. “We extremely widened the starting line, and we decided that worked really well. It was a social distancing thing then, but it also worked well to spread the kids out so they aren’t competing for the same space.”
Also last year, race organizers added accessibility for wheelchairs, and that will continue this year.
“Just widening the starting line and the redesign of the course so a significant portion of it can have access to sidewalks so somebody on a wheelchair is not having to go through all grass was one of the big things that we did,” Stafford said.
The event, which had attracted 600 to 800 runners a year prior to 2020, featured about 300 kids last year. At that time, Indiana was still under COVID restrictions, and organizers were encouraging runners and spectators to wear masks.
As of two weeks ago, only 39 kids had registered for this year’s event. That number jumped to 110 last week.
“It’s picking up, but it’s still lagging for what we expect,” Stafford said. “In elementary school time, basically in two years, they’ve completely forgotten about it. It hasn’t been on their radar for two years. It’s not starting over, but it’s getting that pipeline filled again. It’s trying to reestablish that pattern.”
The event features four races. Pre-Kindergarteners run a quarter-mile, Grades 1 and 2 run a half-mile, Grades 3 and 4 run one mile and Grades 5 and 6 also run one mile.
Students can register on the Columbus Running Club site, runcolumbus.org, or through Parks and Recreation. Kids who preregister by the end of April are guaranteed a t-shirt.
“We just want to get the kids out there and hopefully let them enjoy a morning in the sun,” Stafford said.
The Columbus Running Club, which hosts the Elementary School Fitness Run, Walk and Roll, has taken on hosting a triathlon on Aug. 20 in Tipton Lakes. Columbus Running Club also hosts the Firecracker 5K run at end of June and the Mill Race Marathon, half marathon and 5K in late September. Next March, it will debut a 15K run around Grandview Lake.
“We’re trying to establish kind of a pattern,” Stafford said. “They’re smaller events, more local, than the marathon is, but it’s still community based.”
