MANCHESTER, CT – Runners in foreign countries offer the Virtual Manchester Road Race 2020 worldwide.
International runners will travel the distance of 4,748 miles in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, on the site of a former gunpowder factory in Ireland, through the streets of a historic village in Britain and on a coast of the city of Down Under, race officials said. .
When the Manchester Road Race is virtual this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, it will also be global, because participants of the Virtual Manchester Road Race will use a smartphone app that will allow them to run the MRR anywhere in the world.
Race said they had won several registrations from foreign runners.
Mary Cotard, daughter of Olympic medalist and four-time Manchester champion Joe McCluskey, will lead the MRR, his third, in Paris in November. Cotard has been a monetary director living in France for several years.
Although the French government recently imposed strict restrictions to combat the rise of coronavirus infections in the country, citizens can train outdoors at home for an hour a day less than a mile from home.
“This means that I intend to run on the virtual MRR,” Cotard wrote in a recent email to the career committee. “I ran the race even if I had to turn the block around several times. I probably wouldn’t miss the race. “”
Two members of the well-known “Irish Connection” of the MRR, John Treacy and Eamonn Coghlan, will also register with the VMRR of Ireland in November.
Treacy won the silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics marathon and four-time champion in Manchester. Coghlan, one of the world’s largest indoor runners, has won 3 victories on Turkey Day here.
Also in Ireland, Kieran Donovan of Cork will do the VMRR with his wife, Rita, to the 140-acre Ballincollig Regional Park, where there was once a gunpowder production plant for the armies of the British Empire. Kieran Donovan was an out-of-competition Irish half-lord at Holy Cross and ranked 19th in the 1968 MRR and finished 12th in 1971.
Fiona Warland plans to run the road race through the picturesque streets of a British city that colonized through the Saxons in the 6th century.
“My husband Gary and I are going to run in or around Bicester, just outside Oxford and an hour north of London,” he said in a recent email to the race organisers. Warlands travelled from Britain to Manchester to take part in the Thanksgiving race in 2015 and 2017. Gary Warland finished fifth in the 40- to 45-year-old mrr organization at MRR 2015.
Dan and Molly Kennedy will use a double stroller to push their twins, Cora and Finn, when everyone competes at the VMRR in Sydney, Australia. Cora and Finn were born there on June 23. Ned and Dani Kennedy of Vernon are the grandparents.
Members of Kennedy’s family circle have long participated in the Manchester Road Race. Dani Kennedy is also a member of the MRR Executive Committee.
Race organizers have already registered runners from France, Ireland, Great Britain, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Australia and hope to get more registrations from foreign countries before the November 24 deadline when registration ends.
“There’s an old saying that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” said Manchester Road Race President Dr. Tris Carta. “We’re doing this for the Covid-19 pandemic sponsoring the virtual race. The fact that other people stand in solidarity with us in this crisis by creating the Manchester Road Race around the world. “
Registration for the Virtual Manchester Road Race began on 1 October and will continue until 24 November. The VMRR can be performed at any time between November 19 and 25.
More information about the virtual career and online programs can be found www. manchesterroadrace. com.
This article was originally published in Manchester Patch