First In-Person Race in a Year: 6th Annual Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup 4-Mile Race

Fifty-two weeks ago I ran my last in-person race, the fifth annual grilled cheese and tomato soup 4-miler. At the time I had heard about Coronavirus (as it was called in those days), but it was far away in Wuhan, China and Florence, Italy. Yes, it was awful that those places were in lock down, but life was normal in New Jersey. 

Within a week that was all to change.

Within that week, we signed up for next year's 4-mile race. Typically the day of the race, or the day after, we are sent an email inviting us to sign up for next year's race -- catching us while we still have a runner's high. It is typically the first race of the calendar year, not counting the New Year's Day race that happens while it still feels like the year before.

In the past year many races have been cancelled, postponed, or simply went virtual. Us runners, and those race organizers did what they could do. Bucks County RunBucks patiently followed state guidelines. Races were postponed, and they have been generous with deferral allowances. Like many of us, they figured out a way to make the race happen, while also being safe.

With Gabrielle for our annual race photo

Of course we were asked to wear masks when we were near others. They also recognize that running while wearing a mask is a challenge (not impossible) and said when we were not near others we could take off our masks.

They also cut how many could run.

The post party became a box of make your own grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup at home.

The course was changed. Instead of starting en masse using the spiral of death to sort us, they asked us to realistically predict our pace. Be realistic (yes, repeating for emphasis). Bib numbers were assigned based on this expectation. 

The plan was for us to line up in number order. It was a great plan. I suspect the people wearing the lowest numbers managed to follow the order. Many back of the packers stayed back of the pack hanging out with their friends. Those of us in the middle tried to stay near the middle.

One man with a bib 30 numbers higher than mine insisted I go in front of him, that he was feeling slow that day. You guessed it, he flew by me -- which was not the idea! We were supposed to flow like a train and keep passing and getting close to others at a minimum.

The other thing they did to separate us was to give each person their own start

time. Person one started after the National Anthem. Person two stood at the 40-foot mark. When Person one crossed the starting line. Person two sauntered up to the start line from 30 feet away. Then Person three. Then Person four. And on and on until Person 168. Looking at the results, that took about 10 minutes -- a long time for a race with under 200 people in it.

In general it worked. We didn't gather. People wore their masks. Not much passing happened.

The biggest stumbling block were the large patches of ice -- especially the one

near the turnaround point (which was ironically moved to compensate for the lack of spiral of death), and the stretches of mud. In a few days temperatures will be in the mid-60s instead of low 30s and those patches of ice will disappear, and more mud will appear.

Let me add, it is a challenge to figure out pace when the sense of competition is erased by having our own start times. I was 10 seconds per minute slower this way than in the past (the ice did contribute to some of that). Don was a lot slower, this year he power walked instead of running because he is focusing his energy or training for his cross-country bike ride instead of running.

One last observation: in general, the less clothes one wore to race in, the faster their time. Even if I ran with the skimpiest of outfits, though, there is no chance I would be faster than the teenagers running in shorts and tank tops on this chilly later winter day. However, maybe I would have been a little faster, if only to get to the finish line sooner so I could warm up.