SEPTEMBER COULD BE BLOCKBUSTER MONTH FOR ATHLETICS & ROAD RUNNING
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2020 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

(30-Mar) -- Not since the Sydney Olympics in 2000 will the month of September hold more interest for athletics and road running fans if the current schedule of events holds. Already a month which routinely features great competitions like the Wanda Diamond League Final, New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile, and BMW Berlin Marathon, this September will also feature a superb array of events which have been rescheduled from the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of traditional athletics meetings, the two final stops of the Wanda Diamond League, Brussels and Zürich, are scheduled for September 4 and 11, respectively. Also, the traditional season-ending meetings in Chorzow, Berlin, and Zagreb are on the calendar for September 6, 13 and 15, respectively. Added to these five meetings are three more: Dessau, Rovereto, and Ostrava, all on September 8. Dessau was originally scheduled for May 20, and Ostrava for May 22. The track season would end with Zagreb under the current schedule.

On the road running side, traditional September events like the Birell Grand Prix 10-K in Prague (Sept. 5); Faxon Law New Haven Road Race (Sept. 7); Copenhagen Half-Marathon, Great North Run and New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile (Sept. 13); Blackmores Sydney Marathon, Dam tot Damloop, and Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon (Sept. 20); and BMW Berlin Marathon, ING Route du Vin Half-Marathon, and Maratonina Città di Udine (Sept. 27) are all scheduled for their traditional weekends. However, some of the world's best spring road races will join these traditional September events creating an exceptionally crowded calendar. Here is a summary of the events which have been pushed forward from the spring into September:

Weekend of September 5 - 7 (Labor Day weekend in the USA):
 Bolder BOULDER 10-K
 Cork City Marathon
 CSOB Bratislava City Marathon
 Great Manchester Run 10-K
 Meia-Maratona Internacional de Lisboa
 Santiago Marathon
 Sportisimo Prague Int'l Half-Marathon
 TD Bank Reedy River Run
 Volkswagen Bucharest Half-Marathon

Weekend of September 12 - 14
 Boston Marathon (held on Monday)

Weekend of September 19 - 20:
 Bay to Breakers 12-K
 Brighton Marathon & 10-K
 Carlsbad 5000
 Deep RiverRock Belfast City Marathon
 DOZ Maraton Lodz
 Lilac Bloomsday Run 12-K
 Medio Maratón Azkoitia-Azpeitia Memorial Diego García
 Padova Marathon
 Treviso Marathon
 Vodafone Istanbul Half-Marathon

Weekend of September 26 - 27:
 15-K Nocturna Valencia Banco Mediolanum
 Alloa Half Marathon
 Banque Scotia Semi et 5 km de Montreal
 Maratón de Lima
 Rotorua Marathon
 Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10-K

In addition to these events, another 35 prominent spring road races have been rescheduled for October and November, including the Virgin Money London Marathon (Oct. 4), Debno Marathon (Oct. 11), World Athletics Half-Marathon Championships (Oct. 17), Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris (Oct. 18), and NN Marathon Rotterdam (Oct. 25).

Sadly, many more events have been cancelled than postponed, demonstrating the difficulty of rescheduling events.  Also, handful of events converted to virtual editions, at least in part, like the Allstate Sugar Bowl Crescent City Classic 10-K in New Orleans; Pear Blossom Run 10 Mile in Medford, Ore.; and the CCVI Trolley Run 4 Mile in Kansas City, Mo.

Of course, at least some of the rescheduled events may not be held depending on the trajectory of the pandemic.


PHOTO: Jenny Simpson nips Elle Purrier at the 2019 New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile, one of the traditional September road races which is scheduled for its regular weekend of September 13 (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)