Staying Connected While We’re Apart

Dear SMAC friends,

For each of us, life has changed dramatically over the past couple of weeks. Between re-organizing work, family, and changing all the plans you made for the foreseeable future, maybe your daily run is something that’s been keeping you grounded.

As a club, we regret being unable to share our passion for running at races and group runs, for as long as the restrictions that are recommended to stop the spread of COVID-19 remain in place. We are a community, and we need to help keep everyone safe.

For the time being, we have cancelled or postponed:

– The Ron Hebert Race
– Northampton X-C 5K races (scheduled to start May 5, if it’s safe to do so)
– Sugarloaf Hill Workouts
– Summer Track Workouts

Youth Track in Amherst and Northampton is scheduled to start in later May. We will update the club if this changes.

Things are changing rapidly, and we don’t know when we will be able to go back to normal life. While we’re unable to gather together, we’re thinking of ways to stay connected, at a distance. Here are a couple things already in progress:

There are virtual runs popping up, some of which you can find details about here: https://www.facebook.com/valleyvirtualrunning/

We’re looking for your submissions to the May 1 issue of The Sun, documenting these times. If you find yourself moved to write, draw, or create anything, please do pass it along to share to alpinefin [at] comcast.net; the deadline is April 22nd.

We will share more activities & ideas as they come up!

Take care,
Laure Van den Broeck Raffensperger, Vice President
Dawn Montague, President
SMAC Board of Directors