Displaced marathoners hope to reach their goals virtually

In Erin Donahue’s mind, 2020 was the year it would happen. She had been training diligently. She felt good.

She would reach her goal to complete the Pittsburgh Marathon in under four hours.

Donahue, a distance runner since her days at Blackhawk, had been running at least 30 hours a week when she wasn’t teaching German at Mars.

She couldn’t have been any closer in 2017 when she hit four hours on the nose. Or, as she put it with a smile, “Four, zero, zero, zero, zero. (4:00:00).”

Then, the rules changed.

In the wake of covid-19, the Pittsburgh Marathon was forced to cancel the 26.2-mile race through 90 neighborhoods, which was scheduled for May 3. It would have been the city’s 31st marathon, dating to 1985, and 12th consecutive.

That left P3R CEO Troy Schooley with 40,000 disappointed runners, ranging in ages from 2 to 80, with no outlet for their bottled-up energy and well-conditioned cardiovascular systems.

Schooley anticipated a crowd of about 300,000, who annually make the marathon the biggest sporting event in Pittsburgh. Sadly, he faced the reality of cancellation, but it spawned another ambitious undertaking: the city’s first virtual marathon.

“So many people dedicate so much time into training,” Schooley said, “I think it was important to be able for them to be able to earn their medals and earn their shirts.

“You see Pittsburgh Marathon shirts all the time around town, whether it’s on the trails or just wearing it. They want to sport it proudly.

“I think it was important to create the virtual option for the runners, whether it was their first marathon or their 100th marathon.”

Postponing and rescheduling an event the magnitude of the Pittsburgh Marathon is not practical, Schooley said. So, why not do it virtually?

Schooley said nearly 13,000 runners have registered for the virtual marathon, but refunds are available.

“It’s about 50-50,” he said. “Under these circumstances, with the times we are in, people are really watching where they spend their money, which they should.”

But the response for the virtual race is encouraging.

“It just shows how loyal are runner base is and how much they enjoy getting a medal or shirt,” Schooley said.

The rules for the virtual marathon are there are no rules, other than to continue social distancing. Just run the race anytime — it’s on the honor system — and enter your time on PittsburghMarathon.com. When it’s safe to do so, P3R organizers will mail the medals, T-shirts and sunglasses that would have been awarded at the finish line.

P3R has mapped out 17 courses throughout the region for the 5K, half and full marathons, including North Park, South Park and Hartwood Acres. All are available on pittsburghmarathon.com, but entrants can run anywhere that’s convenient and devoid of large gatherings of people — even on a treadmill.

Participants can chart their movements through social media with the hashtag #MovePittsburgh. Schooley hopes runners can log enough miles to “move” around the world five times (more than 125,000 miles).

Todd Pindroh, another revitalized marathoner, said his 2-year-old son, Levi, will run in their driveway in Cranberry. He would have been part of the marathon’s Toddler Trot. Levi’s 4-year-old brother, Maddox, will run about a mile through the neighborhood.

Todd and his wife, Leigha, plan to run the original half-marathon course in Pittsburgh on May 3, but under an important condition.

“If a lot more people show up and we don’t feel it’s safe doing it that weekend,” he said, “we’ll try to do it wherever we can. We are very flexible. That’s what makes a virtual race fun. You can run it whenever or where ever you want.”