Hello!
My name is Gabriela Guerrini and I am your new Modesto Marathon race director. I hope that you all have been able to stay well and continue to get outside to run or walk.
Taking over this race from Vickie, our previous race director, has been exciting but challenging, and quite the learning curve. To say 2020 has been the craziest year to take over a race is a major understatement! I have been part of this marathon for 9 years as Director of Volunteers and never did I think we would be dealing with so many changes for a marathon, mostly the first year I take over as race director.
As we have navigated through these uncertain times, we have had to make many tough decisions, and our latest one, is no different. We think it is in the best interest for our community to switch our 2021 Modesto Marathon to a virtual race. Making this decision was not easy, as most of 2020 decisions have been, but it now gives us the time to plan an amazing race with a super cool medal, shirt, and swag! You will have 8 days to run the race and upload your time and photos to our website. We will then have a few days of swag pick up (as long as we are allowed to) and will mail the rest.
I am excited that we are able to continue with our local marathon to support our Teens Run Modesto Program. If you have not had a chance to get to know the program, please go check out their website (teensrunmodesto.org), it is truly a wonderful program that helps teens set goals, work towards achieving those goals, and accomplish them after 6 months of weekly training. The teens also have a chance to earn a college scholarship and become mentors themselves.
I hope that you will join us in continuing to support this amazing race so that by 2022 we can get back to our regularly scheduled race on Sunday, March 27th, 2022 and continue our Teens Run Modesto program, that is so important for our teens, right here in Modesto.
Run Happy!
Gabriela Guerrini