COVID-19 Update
April 15, 2021 Update
Just a quick update about Last Runner Standing. It's looking like a virtual race in May will not happen this year. Our May got sort of busy and we just don't have unscheduled weekends available in May to host the event like we would like via Zoom. We are still planning to host the LIVE Last Runner Standing in June and are moving forward with planning for that event. Should we have additional restrictions that would keep us from hosting the event live, we'll plan to again run a VIRTUAL event on the scheduled race date as we did last year. We will provide more details soon for our COVID related Last Runner Standing protocols as we're still in the process of working on these plans. We may also consider hosting a VIRTUAL Last Runner Standing event later in the year if we can find a good date. Stay tuned!
February 7, 2021 Update
While we were able to go ahead with our Virtual Last Runner Standing event in 2020, we unfortunately had to cancel our in person Last Runner Standing event in November. The format of the Last Runner Standing makes it difficult to run a live race while still adhering to COVID-19 related race protocols. We are hoping to move forward with our live Last Runner Standing this June! If COVID restrictions are still in place by June 2021, we will make every effort to still run a live race within COVID protocols. We'll be continuing to research best practices and formats that might allow us to move forward with the live event even if we have COVID protocols in place. Due to the remaining uncertainty and the fact that our Virtual event last year was really fun, we plan to add a Virtual Last Runner Standing event sometime in May most likely. Stay tuned for that! Stay safe and healthy, wear your mask, get vaccinated when you can and we hope to see you in June!
April 10 Update - Moving Forward!
First of all, we want to thank everyone who completed our short survey. The results were clear and your comments were very helpful. It really did help us as we formulated our plan for Last Runner Standing 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While we know we will not be able to please everyone, we think we came up with the best plan possible for our race in this situation. Our plan for Last Runner Standing 2020 is essentially a combination of the options we provided in our survey. Obviously, we would love to have the full race as planned on June 6. However, with all of the information we've been able to gather, it really looks like that option will not be possible on that date. We really wanted to hold off as long as we could with our decision, but we need to make our decision in a timely enough manner to allow people to plan their season, secure a date for our postponement, notify people early enough about our present plans for June 6, and promote our events.
So, here is our plan for Last Runner Standing 2020:
1. We have postponed the official Last Runner Standing to November 14, 2020. We hope that things will be better by then and we can run the event as we had planned. Obviously we could run into real issues with weather on that date, but we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best in November. If you are currently registered for Last Runner Standing, you don't need to do anything. Your entry is good for the postponed race starting in November. Runners can continue to register for Last Runner Standing. If for some reason we needed to cancel the November date as well, all registered runners will be able to defer their entry to the 2021 Last Runner Standing.
2. On June 6 we will still be running a VIRTUAL Last Runner Standing event. This event will be separate from our postponed official Last Runner Standing event now in November and it will be FREE. If you are currently registered for Last Runner Standing and you'd still like to run the virtual event, you will need to register again for the free Virtual Last Runner Standing. Go to the VIRTUAL Last Runner Standing UltraSignup to register for free! We will run this event similar to how the Quarantine Virtual Ultra was run utilizing Zoom teleconferencing, Strava data uploads and Facebook updates during the event. With Ultrasignup there is a new self reporting feature that we will also utilize for the results. See our VIRTUAL Last Runner Standing Rules and Information page for all of the details!
3. Kim and I plan to run Last Runner Standing live on-site at Spirit Mountain along with all of you virtually on June 6! We'll stream our race live from Spirit Mountain. It will be a Last Holak Standing if you will. We promise no distance, but we do believe you will enjoy watching us suffer on race day!
4. If you are presently registered for Last Runner Standing and don't believe you'll be able to run on the new date of November 14, we will allow you to defer your race entry to the 2021 Last Runner Standing. Just let us know what you'd like to do, and we'll make the necessary changes. You can also still run the virtual race on June 6 (it's open to anyone) and defer your entry to 2021 if you'd like. You'll just need to register again for the virtual race as described above.
We believe this plan captures many of the options we presented. We decided that even the invitation only event of 10 runners or less may present too much of a risk of spreading the virus and not allowing appropriate social distancing that would adhere to the current statewide shelter in place rules. There are just too many question marks for the June date at this time. We also looked at other dates for the race in 2020. There just weren't any dates that didn't have conflicts with either our schedule or other races. November 14 ended up being the best date.
Hope to see many of you virtually on June 6 and IN PERSON on November 14!