2026 LRRC Summer Track Series Recap

Our 34th year was our best yet!  We had a record 542 signups - a 22% increase over 2025. We started 103 races and prepared 1145 ribbons - ribbons are now available for pickup at Riverside Runners.  As usual, competitors ranged in age (1 to 70+) and abilities, which is our goal.  

This event is impossible without the wonderful help we receive:

• University of Lynchburg for use of their facilities
• Theo McIvor for use of the timing equipment (and filling in on week one with his daughter, Kandace)
• Jeff Fedorko and Brooks for the bib numbers (including the emergency extra numbers)
• Gregg Cavaliere for timing each race and processing the results, ribbon labels, etc
• Evan Davis for writing down every finisher's bib number
• Lisa Boman, Linda Shields, Niro Rasanayagaman, Christa Kumar, Susan Coalson, Monica Kamin for all the registration help.
• Tony Smith for being there every week to help setup and take down.
• Andrew Wilds who took photos the first two weeks (and helped elsewhere).
• Jeff Harrington, Steve Shields, and all those who helped cleanup, take-down/put-up the lacrosse nets, and pitched-in to make this a fun event.

• Thanks to nearly all of you for either leaving your numbers or remembering to bring them back.  This was by far the least number of replacements numbers that we have had to issue.  Kudos to you!

As the person firing the gun, there were a couple of particularly rewarding moments for me. 

• The girls 200 meters age 7-8.  All the competitors stayed in their lanes. Then, the boys followed suite.
• Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the girls 9-10 came onto the track and went straight to the correct stagger marks in their lanes.  All the subsequent heats followed their example.

So in addition to running around, having fun, testing physical limits, these races provide educational value.