Naples Daily News Half Marathon: Race ready for Sunday with COVID-19 protocols in place
Greg HardwigA couple thousand runners, shoulder to shoulder, eagerly waiting for the start.
That's been the scene at the start of every Naples Daily News Half Marathon until Sunday.
And Mitch Norgart is just fine with that. The president of Gulf Coast Runners, which runs the event, is simply happy there will be a 2021 NDN Half Marathon, no matter what it looks like.
"We're just thankful," Norgart said, pointing as much to the important fundraising for the organization's youth development the Half Marathon creates as to the chance for runners to participate.
Like anyone trying to stage an event during the coronavirus pandemic, the half marathon has taken layers upon layers of planning to keep runners safe. In previous years, it was to keep them safe from things like traffic on the streets of Naples. Now it's entirely something different.
"We have three people that are 10 feet apart start every five seconds," Norgart said. "We can actually start 1,000 people in 15 minutes and keep all of these people at least six feet apart throughout the entire starting process. They have to keep a mask on up until they start the race.
"We hit them with hand sanitizer and a mask and a bottle of water once they cross the finish line. There are no tents, no massage therapy like in previous years or things like that. They get a bag with a banana, orange and a power bar. We ask them to leave the premises."
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The in-person runners for Sunday were capped at 1,000 — there have been up to 2,300 in previous years — and have sold out, and there's also a virtual race.
Gulf Coast Runners, which runs dozens of races in Southwest Florida each year, had been virtual since the pandemic's onset in mid-March. Initially, the virtual races were successful and popular. But as the year wore on, participation lessened and people were asking if it was possible to have a race safely following appropriate protocols.
"People were digging the virtual races because it was a way for them to participate remotely and safely," Norgart said. "They started to kind of wane."
So Gulf Coast Runners started looking around the country to see who else had tried to have races, and also look to organizations such as the Road Runners Club of America and U.S. Track and Field as to what, if any, guidelines they had come up with.
The SNIP Collier race, which also started on Fifth Avenue South, on Oct. 5 was the first in-person race for the Gulf Coast Runners organization since March.
"We had to give the City of Naples a 10-bullet point outline of how we're going to conduct the races," Norgart said. "We got approval from city council based upon us meeting with Pete DiMaria, who's the fire chief. He's also in charge of emergency command.
"We met with them and the police department, the fire department, and city manager, deputy city manager, and community events."
That race with 150 runners went off well. Gulf Coast Runners hired a videographer who had a drone and a photographer to document the start of the race so they could research how it all went, and also share that with the city.
"We really wanted to prove, not just to ourselves, but to our members and most importantly our powers-that-be at the city, that we could safely stage a race," Norgart said.
A Thanksgiving Day race six weeks later did so, too, with one drawback. There were 1,000 runners, and the start was five people lined up six feet apart. It took an hour and a half to get everyone on the course. The length of time, in addition to wanting to follow a CDC guideline to keep the possibility of someone who's infected being within proximity of someone for less than 15 minutes, resulted in the change for the starting procedure for Sunday.
Norgart had a Zoom video call with 10 city officials last week to discuss plans. One other change is that when a runner signed up, they were asked for a predicted finishing time. That's because faster runners will be placed toward the front of the start, creating less passing.
For elite runners, there's a different mandate. They must have two negative tests within seven days of the race. And they will line up at 6:55 a.m., ahead of the usual 7 a.m. en masse start. The other reason for that is USATF goes by a gun time, not a chip time. Norgart is well aware of some of the financial situations of runners, so Gulf Coast Runners is offering to cover the cost of the second of the two COVID-19 tests.
"They have to provide us with the proof (of the negative tests)," Norgart said. "Each one of the tests have to be 48 hours apart."
Because runners are generally health-conscious, and Gulf Coast Runners has been very communicative regarding the procedures, Norgart isn't that concerned that protocols will not be followed. Nevertheless, race marshals, volunteers, and even some city police will be on hand to make sure they are. The city also has a mask mandate.
"They are dedicated athletes who, if they want to race a Gulf Coast Runners race ... they know what's expected of them and they risk being disqualified, and they know that," he said.
Norgart said when there's a full racing field, $70,000 is raised for the nonprofit's youth development. That goes to college scholarships, trade scholarships, its youth team, and to fundraise runners in elementary and middle school so they can travel to regional and state cross country and track meets.
"We take the best of the best from Collier public schools," he said. "We fund that. CCPS does not. So this is a very, very important race for us."
Greg Hardwig is a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @NDN_Ghardwig, email him at ghardwig@naplesnews.com. Support local journalism with this special subscription offer at https://cm.naplesnews.com/specialoffer/