Town schedules socially distanced 3-mile road race

STRATFORD — The start will be staggered. There won’t be any water stations. Or an awards ceremony for top finishers.

With some coronavirusconscious modifications in place, more than 150 people have signed up to run 3 miles in the area of Boothe Memorial Park Saturday in a race organizers are calling the state’s first of the year.

“Unless someone’s putting on one earlier in the morning that we don’t know about, we believe this is the first race (of 2021) in the state,” Race Director Marty Schaivone said Wednesday.

Schaivone usually runs a so-called “Last Chance For Romance” run/walk annually a couple weeks after Valentine’s Day to benefit the police department’s Explorer program.

It’s one of dozens of races he usually directs every year, including Fairfield’s Donnelly Dash and the Vicki Soto 5K.

This year’s race will be a little later than usual, Schaivone said, because of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions.

“They wouldn’t let us do any races until this week, so I immediately put in for getting one done in Stratford this Saturday,” he said.

With the slight delay will come a name change — no more “Last Chance for Romance.”

“Instead we’re calling it the ‘First Chance’ because it’s everyone’s first chance to run this year,” Schaivone said.

Participants will be limited to about 200 because of COVID-19, he said.

In addition, there won’t be a mass start to the race, but a chip-timed “open start” with a maximum of five people at a time leaving at intervals of 10 to 15 seconds.

“We’ve learned how to spread people out,” Schaivone said.

Runners will be required to have masks on before starting and after finishing.

Schaivone thanked the parks, health and police departments for help organizing the event.

The 3-mile course is a loop that begins on Main Street in front of Boothe Memorial Park, takes a right on Whippoorwill Lane, right onto Cutspring Road, then right onto Chapel Street until its intersection with Main Street, then right again back to the park.

Race finishers will get pre-packaged goody bags with things like snacks and bottled water.

Other features common to road races — on-course hydration, post-race awards ceremonies — are still on hold for now.

“This isn’t the kind of race where you’re going to come in and get all the bells and whistles,” Schaivone said.

Still, he said, he hopes a successful event Saturday could pave the way for bigger and better races in the future as more and more of the population gets vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“If we keep it safe and everybody sees what we’re doing, I think we’ve got a good shot to get back up with numbers,” he said.

“We’re calling it the ‘First Chance’ because it’s everyone’s first chance to run this year.”

Race Director Marty Schaivone