The Derek Hotsinpiller Fallen Stars Memorial 5K has become one of the state’s premier road races and one of the area’s most annually anticipated events.

 

That likely won’t change this year even though the 5K format has to be changed.

 

With ongoing concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic and in order to comply with social distancing guidelines, this year’s race, still set for June 13, will be a virtual one.

 

A virtual race is one that can be run or walked from any location. Competitors can run their own race, at their own pace and time it themselves.

 

“It was a hard decision,” said Dustin Hotsinpiller in a video post announcing the decision. “Every year we look forward to everybody being at the race. The smiles, the happiness and the support, you don’t know what that does for us as a family to see all of that. It kind of breaks our heart but with all good things sometimes there is a bump in the road and this is just a bump in the road. We are going to be back bigger and stronger next year.”

 

This year is also the 10-year anniversary of the race and a proper celebration of that milestone will be postponed until 2021.

 

“For people who have already registered we wanted to let you know that you will have an option to defer your registration to 2021 where we will going to officially do our 10-year kickoff and celebration,” said Ashley Hotsinpiller in the video announcement. “People who are already registered on their platform have already been moved over to the virtual race but you do have the option to defer.”

 

Race t-shirts will still be available and they will be mailed out to those who have registered. The goal is to have everybody wear the t-shirts during their virtual race. The deadline to ensure the t-shirt is mailed in time for the virtual race is May 22.

 

Runners can still register after May 22 and they will still receive a t-shirt, it just won’t be guaranteed to arrive by June 13.

 

To view the full Facebook video with the announcement, CLICK HERE

 

Also available is a Derek Hotsinpiller Fallen Stars Memorial 5K message on YouTube which can be viewed below.

 

Editor's Note: Photo from last year's Derek Hotsinpiller Fallen Stars Memorial 5K. Photo by www.benqueenphotography.com