The Joplin Memorial Run is in honor of the 161 individuals who lost their lives and all who have helped recover from the EF-5 tornado that struck May 22, 2011. We are excited to announce the 2020 Joplin Memorial Race has been rescheduled for December 11 and 12.
Runners,
We feel very fortunate to be given the approval to move ahead by the city of Joplin and the health experts for our rescheduled date of Saturday, December 12, 2020. We want to honor their trust in us by doing everything we can to comply with the requests they have made for a safe race. If you do not feel comfortable with the following modifications, please email me and we can switch you to the virtual race or defer you to 2021. All requests need to be made by November 9, 2020.The last 2 weeks before the race I’ll be sending updates and reminders on our processes and procedures. Thanks for working with us on this!
Ruth Sawkins | Race Director
Click here to register for the race.
Race Caps 1000 total in-person runners
Relay and Kids’ Race will not be hosted in 2020
Freeman Half Marathon- 450 runners
Sparklight 10k- 150 runners
Liberty Utilities 5k- 400 runners
Race Start times from Memorial Hall in Joplin
Freeman Half Marathon 8:00 AM
Sparklight 10k 8:15 AM
Liberty Utilities 5k 8:30 AM
Race Modifications for Freeman Joplin Memorial Run on December 12, 2020
• All racers must sign a COVID-19 exposure waiver (we will email these out and have copies at packet pickup). No Waiver, no in-person race.
• No hydration stations will be on the racecourse. One location for refills will be provided on the half marathon course only. That location will be self-serve with sealed bottled water.
• Masks must be worn at packet pickup and before and after the race. Masks are not required while running.
• Post-race food will be prepackaged, contactless pickup.
• No spectators allowed at race start/finish. We will encourage them to spread out on the racecourse if in attendance.
• No beer tent or hang out the tent.
• All contact surfaces (racer-use tables and chairs) will be eliminated. We’ll only have the food tent. The food vendor will have tables (which will be wiped down regularly) with prepackaged food ready for contactless pickup.
• Hand sanitizer and wipes will be available at the race site.
• Results will only be available online post-race.
• We encourage all runners to not linger at the race site once they finish their run.
• All awards will be available for pickup at The Run Around starting at 2 PM Saturday, Dec 12- Sunday, Dec 20. If you are an out of town racer and cannot pick up later on race day you can request your award be shipped to you via email to Ruth Sawkins rufusracing09@gmail.com
• We’ll have a COVID Care team of 4 people who will monitor the race site for compliance to safety modifications.
• Racers will be contacted 24 hours, 7 days, and 14 days after the event to remind them to contact us if they test positive for COVID within this time frame post-race.
Packet Pickup
Packet pickup will be hosted at Empire Market. Masks must be worn, and social distancing will be maintained through 6-foot distances marked on the floor. Hand sanitizer and bleach wipes will be available. We’ll clean any contact points regularly during open hours.
There will be no vendors at packet pickup.
Thursday, December 10, 4-7 PM
Friday, December 11, 4-7 PM
Saturday, December 12 at Race Site/Memorial Hall 7:00-8:30 AM
Race Start
The start/finish will be set up with 5 chutes, each chute is 6 feet apart. On the ground is marked 6-foot spacing and racers will be staged 20 deep. We’ll seed racers based on race pace within their race and continue to fill corrals until all runners have been lined up. Racers will wear disposable masks (provided by us distributed by our COVID care team.) Or runners can wear a buff they can pull down once the race starts and pull back up after the finish. Trash cans will be available at the start for the disposal of masks right before you begin running. Every 5 seconds we will start 5 racers (1 racer per chute). We’ll divide each race into waves of no more than 100 racers, staging you in the parking lot. We ask for you to be in the Memorial Hall parking lot 20 mins before your race start (and no earlier)
Race Finish
As racers finish each race, we’ll use the chutes to keep your social distance. We’ll have a contactless pickup for medals, food, and drinks. Our volunteers overseeing that area will wear gloves and masks.