The coronavirus pandemic is causing an Athens tradition to change formats this year. For the first time in 10 years, The AthHalf Half Marathon and 5K have gone virtual. That means individual participants in each event, will complete their race on a route they choose by October 25 and turn in their time to the race director.
“We were full steam ahead and then unfortunately we learned that we were not going to be permitted to have the in-person race and so that forced to shift to the virtual format,” Helme said. “We had made that announcement very early on before people were regiserd that knew that a virtual race might become an eventuality.”
Jill Helme is Executive Director of AthFest Educates, the nonprofit which sponsors the race.
Helme says they still plan to offer a sort of “Finish Line” for participants after the race.
“Southern Brewing Company is being very gracious to sponsor the race and allow us to use their space. For folks who have been out there, they have acres and acres of space, and so to use their space at the brewery, to host a finish line celebration. The race day was originally October 25th so we are still going to do the finish line celebration on Sunday, October 25th at Southern Brewing. For folks are not comfortable we’re more than happy to mail their shirts and medals to them as we said that we would do.”
AthHalf is still accepting registrations, visit AthHalf dot com for more information. Organizers plan to hold AthHalf 2021 in person.
