You can officially procrastinate longer when it comes to training for Tampa’s Gasparilla Distance Classic. Today, the races—which were scheduled for Feb. 19-21—got postponed until Mother’s Day Weekend, May 7-9, 2021.
Sure, temperatures will be higher in May, but it means we’ll all hopefully be safer, so just run slower, maybe even walk—and definitely drink more water.
Last month—as both the Gasparilla parade and film festival announced postponements—race officials were still clinging to their proposed COVID-19 mitigated race. That changed when today’s positivity rates were released.
Citing Hillsborough County’s 8.63% positivity rate (higher than the 5% the World Health Organization recommends before loosening restrictions), the race’s Executive Director, Susan C. Harmeling wrote that they “would never act in a manner that would place the runners, walkers, volunteers, staff, City of Tampa personnel or event sponsors in harm’s way.”
All participants registered for any of the 2021 events are being given the option of running in-person in May or converting their registration to run virtually. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay emailed Harmeling to see if any refunds would be available—we’ll update this post when we hear back.
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