After taking a year off due to all of the social restrictions, the summer decathlon is coming back! As with many events there will be a different format due to COVID-19-related issues.

The Frederick County Public Schools adjusted their sports schedule to cram a year of sporting events into a 6-month time slot. One of the impacts of that decision is that high school tracks are being used to near the end of the school year. That eliminates our use of tracks during the month of June. Through the creative thinking of several of our members, the Decathlon Series will have two very different phases.

Phase 1
Beginning Wednesday, June 2, and continuing each Wednesday during the month of June, our races will be held in a Tour-de-Parks format. There will still be a warm-up run, a decathlon event with age-graded scoring, a kids run, and an additional running experience based on park facilities.

The playground areas will be a bonus for families and the park settings should provide a fun venue. While the races will be accurately measured, we do lose the 400 meter lap times and not all the courses will be as flat as a track.

6/2 – Middletown Park: 1600 meters
6/9 – Heritage Park: 2 mile
6/16 – Othello Park: 1 mile
6/23 – Utica Park: 3000 meters
6/30 – Urbana District Park: 1500 meters

Phase 2
We will return to our regular track races starting July 7. All races will begin at 6:30 p.m.

7/7 – 800 meters (Grand Prix Event!) – Frederick High School Track
7/14 – 400 meters- Frederick High School Track
7/21 – 1000 meters- Frederick High School Track
7/28 – 200 meters- Middletown High School Track
8/4 – 600 meters- Frederick High School Track

Welcome back to racing!

Questions? Contact Tim O’Keefe at tim.okeefe@sandbox.steeplechasers.org or visit the Decathlon page for more information.