As you all may know, the powers-that-be have made the decision that the April Running of the Squares will be virtual. We all hope this will be the last one during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We know you need more t-shirts and medals and this 5k run will allow you to get one more of each.
- The cost is $10
- Registration began on March 25th and can be done at any Regional Recreation Complex between the hours of 8:30 AM – 4 PM.
- You get your shirt when you register
- You pick up your medals between 9 AM – 11 AM
- May 3rd at Eisenhower
- May 4th (Star Wars Day) at Laurel Manor
- May 5th (Cinco de Mayo) at La Hacienda
- Bring your Villages ID or state issued ID
- Please bring come canned goods for the Seeds of Hope Food Drive
We’ve mapped out a route for the 5k that we can do on April 6th during our normal 6:30 AM run. It is not mandatory to run this route or even at this time, but we thought it would give you a little incentive to run a speedy 3.1 miles. The distance is not exact and everyone should use their watches or Garmins to map yourself and get your time. Since we are running at 6:30 AM we should not run into many golf carts along this route.
We had some input and decided we should leave the square and have a ¾ miles warm up before starting at Sunset Park (the small park between the first and second bridge) and run our normal run that will end at the Winifred Pool.
We will have a map printed out for the Thursday and Sunday runs.
Now a little story about the Running of the Squares
One of our first experiences here in The Villages was participating in the Running of the Squares in Lake Sumter Landing in January of 2018. I must tell you that Trish Chandler was not too keen on my idea of retiring and living 45 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and 75 miles to the Atlantic. This race series changed all of that for us in a good way.
I had visited The Villages for the first time in October of 2017 (alone) while Trish was traveling with some childhood friends in Italy. When I arrived back in Boston the selling process of getting her to look at the place had begun. I finally got her to visit and she was even willing to go with an open mind and give it a chance before saying NO.
We arrived late on a Friday evening and we stayed at the Waterfront Inn with a plan on running the 5k in the morning. We had no idea of the course of if we were allowed to enter the race. Trish ran a good race and ended up coming in second place behind Val Miller. We were impressed with the caliber of runners we encountered and eventually meeting everyone in the club almost a year later. The most amazing part was meeting people our age who loved to run and who are not intimidated from just about any distance. Believe it or not, this race was one of the reasons why we decided to move to The Villages, and we have been more than happy with this decision.
What was one of the things that got you to move here?
The Villages Running Club 