It’s been an annual race held every year for the past 5 years, but this year’s Run The Hook 5K/10K, originally scheduled for May 10, will be held as a virtual race instead due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
We hope you are all staying safe out there and have gotten out for a few runs to keep your sanity and health in order during these uncertain times. Our hearts go out to all of those who have been affected by the pandemic. We know life seems dark right now, but we know there will be brighter days ahead. Please read our important message below for an update on the state of the race.
Last week we received news that the National Parks Service is cancelling all events on Sandy Hook for the month of May. This is obviously not the outcome we anticipated, and believe us when we say we are totally gutted by the news, but we completely understand and support their decision. This, coupled with Governor Murphy’s mandate prohibiting large public events, make the event impossible to carry out in its usual form.
Over the last 5 years, Run The Hook has become a driving force for change in the area to help support Clean Ocean Action in the fight to keep our oceans wild and plastic free. We’ve raised tens of thousands of dollars for their mission and for that, we thank each and every runner who has ever participated in the race. We had big plans to celebrate year 5 of the event, but life doesn’t always go the way you planned so the best we can do is adapt and keep on running.
With that said, we have been contemplating ways to avoid having to outright cancel the event, and decided the best way forward was to go virtual in 2020. While we completely understand that this is not ideal or what you originally signed up for, we hope you’ll stick with us out of support for Clean Ocean Action, who face numerous obstacles to fundraising this year under the present conditions, and the race itself. For those who don’t know, the race is organized by a purpose-driven event business called Beacon Events. They are also the team behind Asbury Park Santa Run with Lunch Break and The Beer Run 5K with Historic Village at Allaire. As you can imagine, the current situation is not ideal for any event company and having to cancel the event this year would be detrimental to their ability to continue organizing races in the future and prevent their charity partners from receiving donations.
Since we are changing the original format of the race, we understand that some of you may not wish to or be able to participate this way. For that reason, we are opening up a 7 day window for any runner to request a full refund if they wish. Instructions on how to do that can be found here. If you choose to stick with us and participate in the virtual format, you will still receive your RTH t-shirt plus a 20% discount for Run The Hook 2021 and 15% discount for The Beer Run and Asbury Park Santa Run in 2020 as a thank you. We will still be making our usual donation to Clean Ocean Action with the proceeds from the virtual race.
Virtual racers can run their race anytime, anywhere, and will have between April 26th and May 10th to submit their time to Split Second Racing via this link, who will post the results online so you can see where you stacked up against the competition. You can run as many times as you want and submit your best time. Please only submit your time once. We recommend using a run tracking app such as Strava, Nike Run, or Google Fit for the best accuracy. We also need all runners to please fill out this form to provide us with your updated shipping address and shirt size so we can mail the shirts.
Most importantly for all virtual racers, we do not encourage gathering to run as a group. We need to continue adhering to strict social distancing measures set by state health officials and the CDC so we can beat the virus. We advise running your race by yourself or with those you may be in quarantine with. Please be sure to keep at least 6 feet or more between yourself and anyone else that may be out along your route.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to send us an email at info@runthehooknj.com. We’re all in this together and we hope you’ll stick with us as we adapt to these uncharted waters.
Good luck and stay safe,
Run The Hook
Registration is still available for the virtual race at $35 per person. Those that wish to participate can submit their time time between April 26 to May 10.
source: Run The Hook via Evenbrite & Facebook
