IT’S COMPLICATED Racing is returning to a different world in in 2021, but there’s reason for optimism. / By Tim Murphy
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here is a lot to be optimistic about in America these days. Vaccinations are proceeding and many areas are flirting with normalcy when it comes to in-person events and everyday activities. America is edging closer and closer to putting the pandemic (hopefully, mostly) behind us. And that is certainly good news for the business of running, which although it pivoted so well to pandemic-era virtual events and selling, still relies on in-person contact and communication. None of this is meant to downplay or diminish the damage COVID-19 has inflicted on us personally and as a society, but there is reason to be generally optimistic. How does that optimism apply to the running world? Not surprisingly, it’s very complicated. Much depends on what industry lane you occupy — and even there it remains complicated. Footwear sales for some companies were strong in 2020, with companies such as Brooks, Puma and Hoka One One all performing well. But performance at Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, ASICS and New Balance all suffered to varying degrees. Activewear was way up in some areas, but down in others. How It All Started for Road Racing The road racing world was more evenhanded in selecting winners and losers — every major, mid-major and small community race was either cancelled or significantly downsized. But beneath the surface and high-profile cancellations, the business impact on road racing is just as confusing. By the time Spring 2020 hit, in-person 22
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racing was basically over. Race Result Weekly’s editor David Monti reported that 51 events were held in-person in 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic hit. Fifteen were U.S.-based events and they were mostly small road races. Immediately, IRL races announced they were “going virtual,” a term as overused by the end of 2020 as the cookie cutter virtual races that emerged. Pay $50, upload your time, get a shirt and a medal. Granted, some races had very little time to react to the pandemic and simply had no choice other than a “plain vanilla” virtual race. Others simply lacked the resources to do anything out-of-the-box. This is understandable because, after all, they are IRL race directors, not digital experience creators. There were also opportunists who saw a long-term world with no IRL races and started churning out virtual race after virtual race, some without any connection to the culture or theme or location they were (at times) appropriating. And finally there were those who harnessed the power of a brand (recognizable
comic book heroes, cartoon characters, Hollywood movies) and/or their own company or state identity, and used that association to get runners excited. And those runners got very excited, signing up for well-marketed, themed swag that became a primary driver of virtual sign ups. One race director worried aloud that they’d become a swag e-comm business because of the emphasis on “stuff” rather than running or experience. No matter what any given virtual race looked like, in the end they all existed for the same purpose: survival. Race organizations did what they had to do to survive and – except in the case of some less-than-ethically-themed events – no one can begrudge them for doing so. So with a cloudy rearview image of 2020 (races were down, all of them, but some weren’t, and some crushed it in 2020), what did the first half of 2021 look like? As vaccines have steadily rolled out across the country, and with some communities being more willing to embrace in-person events earlier, events are slowly coming back. As of early last month,
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