Jeff Graves needed to find a new location for his Run(317) event during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It was scheduled for Carmel, like it was in the past,” Graves said. “We had our permit, which we knew could be pulled from us.”
Graves said City of Carmel officials didn’t feel it was best to host an event like that for the rest of the year.
Graves, a Carmel resident, is president of Westfield-based Vision Event Management, so the company checked with Westfield officials about having the event there.
“They were excited about the opportunity, provided the Hamilton County Health Dept. gave their blessing,” Graves said. “
After laying out the guidelines and plans for dealing with COVID-19, the race got approval from the county’s health department.
Run(317) is set to begin 7 p.m. Sept. 3 at Monon Trail Elementary School. The 3.17-mile race, slightly longer than a 5K, was supposed to be run that same date in the Village of WestClay for the second consecutive year after previously being in downtown Carmel. Kids’ Voice of Indiana is the charity partner.
“We are going to wave-start everyone, so there are 20 different waves,” he said. “It’s going to take us 40 minutes to get everyone started so we can socially distance. The waves are made of 50 people. We are socially distancing those groups so there will be four people that walk up to the line at the start.”
Graves said participants will wear their masks up until their start time.
“If someone wants to do it virtually, they can go ahead if they don’t feel comfortable coming out in person,’ Graves said.
Westfield businesses interested in taking part in a virtual race bag with an offer that runs through Dec. 31 can contact [email protected]. The virtual race bag email will be sent before the race.
Graves said the race is being capped at 1,000 in-person runners.
“We know we have 180 that are going virtual (as of Aug. 25),” he said. “My guess is we’ll probably have 600 to 700 at the race.”
For more, visit run317.com.
