Registration is open for a modified Shelter Island 10K Run/5K Walk. If you’re interested in participating in the June 19th event, sign up sooner rather than later as capacity will be limited to 1,000.
Organizers pitched a redesign of the signature foot race to the Town Board, including staggered start times and no pre- or post-race gatherings. While some logistical concerns need to be worked out — and the plans presented assume that COVID-19 infection rates don’t worsen in the interim — registration is underway at elitefeats.com. The cost is $45 per runner and $35 per walker. There will be no registration on the day of the event.
You can also simply make a donation to the 10K, which is one of the Island’s largest annual fundraising events. This year, donations will be directed to the Cohen Children’s Medical Center at Northwell Health Hospitals, and to the Shelter Island 10K Community Fund. You can select the destination for your contribution. Find donation details at elitefeats.com.
A modified foot race
Brendan Dagan of Elite Feats — which for the past few years has recently managed registration, timing and other details of the 42-year event — told the Town Board his Islandia-based firm has organized nearly 100 footraces since the COVID-19 outbreak, starting with a 5K in Queens last August when New York City “was the epicenter of the pandemic.”
“I say that to you just to let you know we have a lot of protocols and procedures in place,” he said in a presentation at the April 6 work session.
There will be about a 50 percent participation cap based on previous entries for a total of about 1,000 (including walkers in the 5K). The event will comply with state guidance that allows for gatherings of less than 200 by breaking participants into groups of 125.
Traditionally, runners pick up their bibs and other materials at the school gym. Now, in races he organizes, Dagan said runners receive their materials by mail and there are no in-person registrations, and no in-person pre- or post-race gatherings.
The Shelter Island 10K/5K course will not change and runner corrals could be set up along School Street and on school grounds. Instead of starting everyone at the same time, staff will call up a corral of participants, who would form lines following X marks on the pavement. As starters send off runners in the first corral (about six at a time), the second group will move forward, maintaining social distancing.
Spacing runner in this way, Dagan said, also prevents crowding at the finish line (as usual, timing is done using SmartTrac radio frequency tags embedded in the runners’ bibs). He’s found it takes just a few minutes to start each corral. If the Shelter Island 10K runners begin as usual at 5:30 PM, the 5K walkers will set off in the same manner around 5:50 PM.
Once runners/walkers complete a race they receive a pre-packaged goody bag with their medal, race T-shirt, and a packaged snack, and immediately return to their cars and leave. A post-race ceremony may be held via Zoom on a later date TBD.
Dagan aired a video from the first event permitted in a New York City, a 5k in Queens:
The video captures many of the practices that will be in place for a Shelter Island 10K Run/5K Walk (if you are unable to view it above, follow this link to watch on the EliteFeats Facebook page).
Race Director M.E. Adipietro said the biggest new logistical challenge would be parking. Typically, runners leave their cars at the ferry terminals on the North and South Forks and take shuttle buses to the event. This year, no buses will be running. While many fewer participants are expected, parking details will need to be sorted out in permit negotiations as the event date approaches.
