Hello Runners and Walkers!!!!! It’s been such a long time. So much has happened…but I have the most exciting news ever…BE HAPPY 2020 has been given permission by the Windsor Police Department and Windsor Health Department to run LIVE and In-Person in Windsor, CT on August 16th 2020!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how excited we are here at Team Be Happy – We ourselves are runners and have been soooooo missing the comradery and competition and motivation of running with others and all those little things like the excitement of the start line, the push to keep going, the cheers and smiling faces when you cross the finish line and that overwhelming sense of accomplishment. We hope to have that all again, or as close as we can safely, on August 16th!

Given the current state of affairs and concern for everyone’s health and safety we are taking extra precautions to make sure we all feel safe and comfortable running together as well as to comply with all Town and State requirements.
So a couple of details…

1. We will have “Wave” start times – a maximum of 50 people can start together. I will be assigning the waves the week of 08/09/2020 and you will receive an email from me with your start time. If you have any questions or issues feel free to email me at any time. [email protected]
   
2. As much as we want to chat with and congratulate and thank each and everyone one of you – we cannot have any sort of post race celebration 🙁 Those are the rules. So, as you cross the finish line and snag your race medal and water and start to breathe normally – you will need to make your way back to your car. If you are one of our top male or female division finishers you will still be rewarded, we will mail you your prize and congratulate you through social media!
   
3. We cannot allow race day registration. We need to know ahead of time the maximum amount of runners that may be present at any time. If you are a cash in hand, day of registration, kind of participant…whom we also love…you can do that instead during one of our packet pick-up time slots the day before. Again you can always email me with questions.
   
4. You will need to wear a mask (you must have your own) while picking up bibs or swag and while approaching and waiting at the start line. Once you begin running you are free to take your mask off if you are comfortable doing so.
   
5. We will be mailing your bib prior to race day. This is to prevent any lines from forming on race day. If you register the week of 08/09/2020 your bib will be waiting for you at the Villages. We will have multiple time slots to pick up race bibs and t-shirts which I will notify everyone of as race day gets closer. T-shirts will be available for everyone with a mailed bib before and after running your wave – you will just need to present your bib so that we can mark that you have picked up your swag.
   
6. It’s going to look different. Myself and Team Be Happy are committed to Lindsay’s Legacy Foundation and we are committed to this event which supports it. What I can promise you is that we will do our very best to give you a great race day. It might not be the same, you might only be able to see our eyeballs over our masks…but we will be smiling under that mask and cheering you on the whole way!

If you are not comfortable running with us in Windsor on race day you can join us virtually!!!! We have exciting new virtual additions this year including the Race for HOPE Challenge. If you can run a 5K, 10K, and 13.1 between August 16th and
August 31st you get all the Be Happy Swag plus the title of a Race for HOPE Champion and additional prize swag!!!!! We at Team Be Happy will be running and streaming our 3 runs live on social media – using our custom playlists courtesy of the fabulous DJ 10Four, so you can follow our progress and run with us in real time…from a distance.

In closing I want to thank all of you for being a part of Team Be Happy. Even though we love to run and earn those miles and rewards – the real reward is the money that we donate to the Closer to Free Program at Smilow Cancer Center of Yale New Haven Hospital. Cancer doesn’t take a day off, Cancer doesn’t care about COVID-19, and cancer patients are already fighting for their lives everyday. Your registration fee goes directly to Phase 1 Clinical Trial research, these trials can be the best piece of HOPE that many cancer patients receive on their journey to becoming cancer free. Help us help them, last year we donated $10,000 – we want to beat that goal – run, walk, donate! Alwaysbehappy.org