I Run for Pi. 14 March, 2020

The Shamrock Run was the last race of the “old normal.” The I Run for Pi Race held a week later took place in the shadow of the new.

The world had changed in the week between these races. Le Moyne College announced that students would not be returning to campus at the end of their spring break. SUNY Morrisville, whose spring break fell a week later, told its students that they would not be returning after their break as well. New York State limited events to 500 or fewer participants, then reduced crowd size to 250. Capped at 250 runners, the Race For Pi just managed to sneak in before New York shut almost everything down the following week.

It was probably one of the last in-person events in the state, if not most of the country.

The inaugural race of the 2020 Dick’s Sporting Goods Family Fit Series run by Willow Racing, the Pi day race was held on familiar ground; the Charles W. Baker high school in Baldwinsville, the starting point for the massive Turkey Day Race. With about a tenth of the field, parking wasn’t an issue, and the race as a whole had a far more intimate feel to it.

Race day was much like it had been for Tipp Hill: cold and breezy. The high school cafeteria was open to runners for shelter, a last vestige of our pre-Covid reality. Fleet Feet was well-represented; we gathered for what most of us knew would be our last pre-race group shot for some time.

One last group shot before the lockdown.

The race hit its registration cap of 250, a solid number for the series, but the weather and concerns about the virus kept a few registrants away. Around 200 lined up near the school to take on a three-lap course around the school’s grounds.

The start was fast and aided by a gentle downhill stretch in the second half of the lap. I was in the 6 minute range for part of the first lap before dropping to a more manageable mid 7. Each lap concluded with a short, gentle climb into a headwind, which made for a more challenging and interesting race than the profile would initially suggest.

I worked my way through part of the field on the first and second laps; another runner and I had a friendly duel for most of the second and final laps. We thanked each other for the great race before he bolted away to the finish line. I couldn’t match him in the end, but I held my position to the finish—a gradual climb that finally sapped my legs. I finished with a time of 25:31, a new 5K PR made sweeter by the fact that the race was, to use its slogan, “more than a 5K.”

Appropriately, pies and pizza awaited the finishers in the cafeteria, though unfortunately some of the walkers had to do without, probably due to the unexpectedly large field—even with the no shows, the field was quite a bit larger than the previous year’s edition.

My first experience with the series at was at the Harvest Festival at Emmi’s where I won my age group (a qualified success: there were only two of us). In all my years of cycling, I ws on the podium all of once: a third place in my age group at the 1989 Raccoon Rally out of Bradford, Pennsylvania, so winning anything, even with a small field in what was my second race meant a lot.

A plaque and gift certificate for the age group.

My good fortune continued in Baldwinsville, as I took a second age group victory, this time against a much larger group of runners in my age category. I’d had some frustrating near misses over the past few months; this made up for it. If this was to be the last race for some months, it was a nice way to enter our soon-to-be enforced hiatus from in-person racing.