COVID-19 Update

April 2, 2020

After thoughtful discussion and consideration, the race committee decided not to hold the races on June 6-7 this year.

With the COVID-19 pandemic plus related strain on healthcare and other critical services, we don’t want to put our participants, volunteers, vendors, and supporters at risk. Especially not our FANS youth for whom the event is held. We hope you can understand and support our decision, as difficult as it is.

With popular distance events such as the Boston marathon (rescheduled to September 14), Get in Gear (cancelled), and Grandma’s marathon (cancelled) impacted by the pandemic, it has been a challenging year for distance athletes. We, like you, are eager to see an end to the pandemic as soon as possible. Thus, we support the orders for social distancing and other practices to reduce the COVID-19 impact.

However, it is vitally important to us that we try to still raise funds for the FANS scholarships. This year’s class of 18 seniors truly depends on the scholarship funds to help them attend the college or university of their choice.

Last year we raised $21,000 for the scholarship funds. We would be excited to raise close to that amount again this year. With that in mind, we want to poll our current registered participants along with those of you who are planning to participate.

Please consider which of the following options you support for 2020.

1. Conducting a virtual race on June 6-7 where participants can run or walk in their home area. The race committee is researching options to be able to add your virtual mileage to your cumulative mileage.
2. Postponing the live race date to either Aug. 29-30 or Sept. 5-6 (depending on availability of Fort Snelling State Park)
3. Cancelling the 2020 race

Rank your preferences with 1, 2 and 3.

Due to the advance notice of the race change, we will be offering three options for your 2020 entry fees. You will be able to donate, defer, or refund your registration fees. On behalf of the student recipients of the FANS Scholarship Fund, we encourage you to consider donating the entry fee. We will follow up with you after a decision is made on virtual, postponement, or cancellation.

Please send me your ranked preferred choices (1, 2, and 3) to racedirector@fansultraraces.org by Thursday night April 9. We’ll post the poll results on Friday April 10. Then the race committee will meet on Monday April 13 to discuss the next steps.

Thank you so much for your continued support of the FANS Ultra Races and the wonderful FANS students. We wish you, your family and friends, and your community the best of health during these trying times.

Keith
2020 Race Director
racedirector@fansultraraces.org
651-497-8924 cell