I have been involved with the virtual Kiwanis Pumpkin Dash 5K these past few weeks. A virtual race is an event where a runner can enter a race without the in-person contact that many runners are worried about because of the virus pandemic. With a virtual race you enter the race, in this instance it is with Athletes Guild online. You have until November 7th to register and run the 5K distance anytime, anywhere, at your own time. One of the primary reasons for entering a virtual race is the safety and health factor and to contribute to the charity designated by the race. In the case of the Kiwanis Pumpkin Dash 5K the profits go toward scholarships for area students.
After looking at the organization and the actual ability to put on a race without having to host a race at a location it started me looking back at how putting on races has evolved. I got involved with running at the first Capital 10K in 1979. I started organizing races here in San Marcos with the Cinco DeMayo 10K out at the Civic Center on Clovis Barker Road. We ran down the access road, up Redwood (now Wonder World), down highway 123 to the back entrance to the Civic Center, and make one loop around the complex. If we wanted runners to know about the race we printed out flyers about the race and then entered area races and handed out the flyers to runners. If there were several races the same day we had members of the runners club take flyers to as many races as we could. We dropped flyers off at all the local and area runner’s stores (most running stores are gone now) and anywhere we thought there might be runners shopping. We put information about the race in nearby Runner’s Club Newsletters and running magazines. This column had the last section as a race calendar for area races.
Then after a few years the need to drive to area races was unnecessary as runners could now see race calendars on the web. The runners could even enter online and pay a little extra without mailing in a check to the race organizers. Early race entry fees were around $8 early and $10 late entry. Then prices moved up to $12 and $15 for late entries. Now the minimum is around $25 and up to $35 for a 5K race distance. Longer distance races like the half marathon and marathon can reach $100.
