Castlemaine’s iconic Run The Maine event is set to go virtual!
Organisers were determined the 12th annual fundraiser for Castlemaine Health would go ahead despite the challenges of COVID and have opted to take the popular event online.
RTM race director Gavin Krasner said the theme for the 2020 event was ‘Run Your Own Race’ and participants would be encouraged to run their selected distance over a 60-hour period kicking off at 6am on the Grand Final Day public holiday, Friday October 23 and finishing at 6pm on the Sunday evening October 25.
The team from RTM and Castlemaine creatives Storyland joined forces last week to create some fun videos of race mascot ‘The Bird’ (aka Dr Richard Mayes) to promote the event.
The race director said there had been a lot of focus on health and wellbeing during the pandemic and lockdowns and a lot of people had been focusing on improving their fitness and looking after their mental health.
“RTM presents the perfect opportunity for people of all fitness levels and abilities to challenge themselves,” he said.
“In 2020 people can run 5km, 10km or the new distance 15km. The popular half marathon 21.1km will also return for the second year,” Gavin said.
This year there is just a flat $25 entry fee.
“The bulk of the ticket fee will go straight to Castlemaine Health who need our support now more than ever,” Gavin said.
“The wonderful thing about the virtual race is that anyone can take part no matter where they are in Australia or the world. You just select your distance, register, upload your race time/s and a picture or selfie to the platform. We will have interactive leaderboards and prizes for ‘Best Dressed’ which is always a fun element of RTM,” he said.
“We have no expectations on the number of entries we may get or the money we may be able to raise, we simple urge our friends and supporters to get on board, run for a cause, run your PB and share it with us via the website.
“We don’t know what the COVID landscape will look like by then but we felt as we most likely still won’t be able to gather in large groups, this is a way the event can proceed and people can connect in a fun but safe way,” he said.
Runners can select their own course but the team from Run The Maine will also be sharing some of their favourite runs and courses in Castlemaine and surrounds for inspiration.
“The Run The Maine committee will also be challenging ourselves by attempting a ‘quadrella’ and running every race distance 5km through to 21.1km in the 60 hour period!” Gavin said.
Runners can also join the RTM Strava runners group to share times and follow the progress of the RTM committee members’ quadrella progress.
To discover more about this year’s Run The Maine, check out the website at runthemaine.org and stay tuned to the website and RTM Facebook and Instagram for the videos to drop!
