A race you can run while social distancing

Spring is usually a busy time for marathons, half marathons, and other races.

But, this spring, due to Covid-19, they’ve had to be cancelled or postponed.

Now, one Seattle-area running company, Orca Running, has come up with an alternative.

The Orca Running Company organizes 23 races a year, including the Iron Horse Half Marathon in North Bend.

But, now, they can’t hold races.

Co-owner Porter Bratten said he didn’t know how he was going to pay his employees.

“Little things would make me start crying,” he said. “I didn’t know how we were going to, like, make it through this.”

Then Bratten came up with an idea: he’s calling it the Social Distance Run.

Participants choose one of six distances and spend the next two months training for it, while he sends them weekly inspiration and guidance.

Then, they run their chosen distance on their own over Memorial Day weekend.

And Bratten will send them a race shirt and a medal made of birch plywood. He carves the medals himself, in his garage.

Bratten said the response has been much bigger than he expected: He was hoping for about 300 participants, but close to 1000 — some from as far away as Denmark — have already signed up.