The Calgary Marathon race weekend is going virtual for 2020

Calgary Marathon organizers have announced that the event (which includes a 5K, 10K, half and full marathons and a 50K) will take the virtual route for the 2020 season.

Organizers had postponed the race weekend—which had originally been set for May 31—until the fall, but given the uncertainty of COVID-19, they have decided to go virtual instead. In addition to the marathon race weekend, Run Calgary will hold several other virtual events throughout the rest of 2020.

Over 6,000 people have already signed up for the Calgary Marathon Race Weekend, and on May 4, registration will re-open for anyone else who would like to enter the virtual events. Entrants in each of the races will have from May 31 to September 27 to complete their runs.

After completion, runners upload their results to the RunKeeper app, where race leaderboards will be compiled. Anyone who had already registered for the race weekend and doesn’t want to compete in the virtual event has the option to defer their run until the 2021, 2022 or 2023 events.

The new virtual race series, which is called the 2020 Run Calgary Virtual Running Festival, features six events. The virtual festival starts with the Calgary Marathon on May 31 and has events throughout the summer and fall until December.

Participants won’t just get to race and see where they stack up against other runners—they will also receive race swag and medals, bibs and finishers’ certificates. Run Calgary organized a virtual event in 2019, well before COVID-19, and it did extremely well, selling out in just three hours.

posted Monday May 4th
by Ben Snider-McGrath