Boston Buildup Series Announced

It’s a few days later than normal, but registration for the Boston Buildup XLIII is finally open. After working out the details of how we plan to proceed with the races, here’s the scoop:

It seems highly unlikely any races will be permitted in Connecticut before January 19, 2021. Therefore, the opening race of the Series, the Rowayton 10km, will be held as a totally Virtual event, with a twist.

The course will be marked on January 1 and entrants may begin running it at 7 AM the following day. On Sunday, January 3, an informal group of “Schrodinger’s Runners” (thanks to Paul Greenberg for coming up with that concept for the Westport Road Runners Summer Series) may meet at 10 AM to run it together. Those who run the course any time in that two-day window can submit their times, either by uploading a GPX file from a GPS device, through the free RaceJoy app, or manually from their watch.

Runners can also cover the 10K distance anywhere else during the week preceding January 3, however those times will be posted to a separate “Run Anywhere” set of results and will not be included in the overall Series scoring.

The following race, the Ridgefield 15km, is set up as a regular in-person race, again with an optional “Run Anywhere” Virtual component. The race date of January 24 is three weeks after the opening race rather than the traditional two so that it falls after the 19th, the current end date for the latest COVID-19 guidelines. Pandemic safe race procedures (social distancing at the start, masks required when not running, no aid stations) will be utilized.

Should an extension of the road race prohibition prevent us from holding a physical in-person race, we will transition the event to a Virtual format with the same course marking and results separation as for the 10km.

This process will continue for the remaining two events, the Fairfield 20km on February 14 and the Silvermine 25km on March 7. Also, based on what transpired in 2020, some towns may permit races before others, in which case we may change the location of any of the last three races. And as usual, severe weather may cause the races to be postponed to the following weekend.

You may register for any of the four individual events or for the full four-race Series at a reduced price. The first 100 Series registrants will receive custom Buildup socks, to be distributed preceding or at the first race to those running in person, or mailed to everyone else. Long sleeve tech shirts are also available for an additional cost.

Running during Winter 2021 is going to be a little different, but we hope having the Buildup races to get you out the door and training will make things feel a bit more normal.