Sweetheart City Racing hosted a trail 5K and 10K on Friday night, May 29, and a three hour and six hour race on Saturday morning, May 30.
It has been 11 weeks since 3W Races hosted the Erin Go Braugh 7.77K on Saturday, March 14 in Westminster. That was the last in-person race to take place before state and local governments banned events throughout Colorado due to COVID-19 concerns. As the months have ticked by, many runners in Colorado have been wondering when athletes would be allowed to get back to in-person racing.
It happened this weekend. Sweetheart City Racing hosted the Run the Ranch Trail Races. Taking place at the Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch outside of Loveland, runners chose from a 5K or 10K trail race on Friday evening and a three hour or six hour trail race on Saturday morning.
With over 3,200 acres of private property, Sylvan Dale was the perfect venue to host this first event moving forward.
Starting near the Ranch office, runners headed out a dirt road, and then began to “climb” up the face of the mountain on technical single track trails with gorgeous views of the valley below. After one and a half miles, the trail leveled out and then began a wild descent. After 2.5 miles, 10K runners turned off and got the pleasure of running back up to the top and across a different mesa before returning to the finish line.
For the three hour and six hour, runners tried to finish as many laps of the challenging course as possible.
Overall, there were 130 registrants with an age range of finishers as young as 10 and as old as 85.
We were so excited that the folks at Sylvan Dale allowed us to host this event. We only used about half of the trails on the property. There is another eight miles further up on the mountain that we hope to use in the future.
Shane McWaters, CoOwner of Sweetheart City Racing
Tent camping was available on Friday night, allowing some runners to participate in the runs both Friday night and on Saturday. Property cabins were also available for rent.
Race organizers followed safety guidelines by offering a no contact packet pick-up process where everyone’s packet was placed in a bag and laid out on picnic tables for the runners to pick up. All staff members wore masks when dealing with runners and post-race food was prepared with gloved hands.
The race utilized an open start line allowing runners to start the event at intervals which would accommodate current social distancing guidelines. Stakes were placed in the ground at six-foot intervals behind the start line to ensure runners did not get too close to each other before they began.
Sweetheart City Racing took on the challenge of hosting this first event back, proving that outdoor, open-air events can happen in a safe and thoughtful way, and showed that there are people that are ready for them to happen.
