FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: Robin Jumper |
June 9, 2020 | (808) 635-3053 |
The 12th Annual Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon Goes Virtual – Stride for Kauai 2020
For the last eleven years, The Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon has attracted visitors and fitness enthusiasts from around the world. Our goal has always been to provide participants with a world-class race experience that celebrates the beauty and culture of the Garden Isle.
While our community and world face new challenges daily, we understand that there is a huge responsibility to the health and well being of our participants, volunteers, staff, spectators, sponsors, and island resources required to produce a safe race. But we also realize that runners/walkers/skippers are in dire need of camaraderie, motivation and the aloha spirit. So we are announcing the shift to virtual with help of our good friends professional runner Tyler McCandless, Co-Founder and CEO of Soul Focus Sports JT Service, and runner extraordinaire and virtual event host Bart Yasso. Watch Zoom announcement here.
From September 1-6, 2020 virtual race participants can complete the marathon or half marathon mileage continuously, on the same day and on the route and time of their choosing. Once executed, they can upload their time to raceentry.com. They will not only earn a traditional logo’d race bag, performance tee and medal, they will also be treated with Kauai themed goodies from local vendors and sponsors like Kauai Coffee, Grand Hyatt Kauai and Wilcox Health. Monthly Zoom training calls throughout the summer months will be an option to keep people motivated and to stay in touch with other runners, as well as social media giveaways and incentives on Instagram and Facebook.
The details are simple. All registered participants for the 2020 Kauai Marathon or Half Marathon will be contacted with the option to go virtual, or defer their registration to the 2021 event. The specifics are listed here. Participants who opt for the virtual event and register for the 2021 event will get an added bonus of a super soft long sleeve logo’d t-shirt in their swag bag.
The Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon depends on the expertise and resources of many businesses and that will continue throughout the virtual process. Hawaii Tourism Authority, Grand Hyatt Kauai, Wilcox Health, Kauai Visitors Bureau, Kauai Coffee, Alaska Airlines and Hawaii Ford Dealers are just a few of our local sponsors.
By supporting The Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon, you are helping our island community heal one stride at a time. For more information or to register, please visit thekauaimarathon.com.
The 12th Annual Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon takes place virtually from Sunday, September 1-6, 2020. The online registration deadline for this world-renowned event is on September 5th at 11:59 Pacific Standard Time.
Some fun race facts:
- Since the inaugural event, The Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon has hosted 9,023 participants from the mainland, 1,265 international runners, 3,292 from the neighbor islands and 7,379 from the island of Kauai
- Approximately 60% are women between the ages of 25 and 45
- The direct economic impact over the eleven years has equated to nearly $32 million according to the County of Kauai
- The Kauai Marathon 501c3 has donated over $130,000 to local charities and non-profit entities
Can you please provide more details about the rationale for the shift to the virtual race for those of us that have already made travel plans and reservations to be there for the event? Is it primarily concern over COVID-19 or rioting that has prompted this? Or concern that Hawaii will still be under quarantine requirements for travelers?
Aloha Joe, Yes, the rationale is for all that you listed above. We wanted to give our participants as much time as possible to make a decision on their travel plans as we do not know when the restrictions will be lifted. This was certainly not an easy decision, but we are going to make the virtual event as cool as possible and look forward to bringing everyone together again in 2021!