September usually signals the start of fall race season. This season’s racing looks so much different from past seasons. While some organizations have been able to roll with the punches that 2020 has thrown at them and produce both virtual and in-person events, LVRR events have been put on hold since early March. Our last race took place on March 1st, the Ice Scraper 5k, with 147 finishers celebrating in Lehigh Parkway.
As you know, all but one of our club events takes place within Allentown’s city limits. The only event that doesn’t is the Emmaus 4 Mile Classic which was canceled in April. Over the summer, the City of Allentown placed strong restrictions on events, pulling permits and closing its parks to organized events. Now, they are requiring an extra $10 million insurance policy on any event that takes place within its boundaries and that is BEFORE they decide whether or not to grant a permit for the event. This is tricky and extremely costly for a non-profit organization such as ours where the majority of our events are either free or very low-cost. Profits from the Emmaus 4 Miler fund two scholarships. Profits from the St. Luke’s Half Marathon event fund everything else that the club does from covering costs of the rest of our events to funding five scholarships, numerous grants, clubhouse maintenance (Isaias put a little dent in that), operational costs, etc.
We’re trying to be very straight with you. We WANT to run again. We are trying to find our way through the hurdles that have been placed in front of us. We have a very unique relationship with the City and we don’t want to jeopardize that by putting together a race or group run behind their back. Our club uses the clubhouse free of charge in exchange for our continued maintenance and upkeep of it. We help take care of Lehigh Parkway by providing stone gravel for the trails, by showing gratitude to park personnel and purchasing gift certificates each Thanksgiving, and most recently with the Mile Markers project in the Parkway. We love our home and greatly appreciate our relationship with Allentown.
We would like to thank everyone who participated in our Return to Running Survey. When we are able to resume in-person races again, our procedures will certainly include many of the safety standards that we have recently become accustomed to such as requiring face masks during check-in and when in the proximity of others (except when actively racing), and having hand sanitizer in all areas where people will be touching things (aid stations, etc.) We realize that we all need to be able to have some sort of “normal” in our lives and will take all necessary precautions to do that safely.
With all that said, we are working with the City to be able to host our events again. Group Runs within the city’s park system are also affected by these restrictions. If anyone is interested in hosting a group run for the club which would take place at a location or park that is NOT within Allentown’s boundaries, please reach out to us (contact@lvrr.org) as we would love to coordinate some club-sponsored Group Runs.
We only ask that you please be patient with us as some of these things are simply beyond our control.