"Runners Set! GO!" What's New for the 2025 Season!
March is like a signpost. It may still be cold and may even snow sometimes, but dawn breaks sooner, and the sun sets later, and we know Spring is peaking around the corner on the road up ahead. March is the sign that tells us to keep moving forward, knowing our reward for surviving winter is coming. March is also the traditional beginning of the Platte River Fitness Series racing season. Like the seasons, 2025 will bring a few changes. Change can be challenging but it can also bring variety, new experiences and new opportunities inside an initiative that is now 24 years old.
Our Light Up the Night 5K and Mile will return as the kickoff event for the 2025 season. Light Up the Night is a special race, full of the enthusiasm and joy of the students who make it possible, the North Platte High School Student Council. It is also the joyful reunion of athletes who have persevered through dark and cold in anticipation of being reunited with “the fitness family.” Those itching to compete will be ready.
Perhaps the biggest change for 2025 will come in April. It is not an unprecedented change. As most of you know, the Tri-Nebraska Triathlon will be held as a virtual event for 2025, just as it was during the 2020 pandemic. Deep consideration and deliberation went into making the decision to hold a virtual triathlon for the adults and a modified “swim/run duathlon” for the kids. Dozens of possible plans and scenarios where evaluated as construction continues in earnest at the Rec Center. Other considerations beyond the construction but linked to it included a major baseball tournament and soccer games that will also be taking place the same day in Centennial Park creating a high amount of traffic that had to be considered when accessing possible routes and street closures. The decision to go virtual was based on athlete safety and athlete experience.
The swim/run for the kids is not new either. Many years ago, a rare late April snowstorm struck the morning of the kids’ triathlon, which was called the Tinker Triathlon at that time. Undeterred by the snow, the kids swam their distance in the pool and then headed to the Rec Center gym to run. It was absolutely priceless and filled the Rec Center with laughter and joy. By late morning on Saturday, the snow had melted, and the adult triathlon was held as scheduled.
The format for the virtual triathlon might look slightly different than during the pandemic. We are giving you a full week to complete your triathlon, April 21-27th to limit the potential for crowding in the pool. Your swim/water walk must be completed during normal hours of operation for the Rec Center. Since you get to pick your day, you get to pick your weather and wind speed! You also get to pick your course. You can stick with the actual race route or do something different as long as you provide proof that you covered the mandatory distances of a 500-yard swim/water walk, 14-mile bike and 5K run/walk. You must complete it as you would if the race were in-person, swim, bike and run done consecutively. In other words, you can’t swim one day, bike the next and run on another day. In the spirit of the sport, you should complete your legs in the correct order, swim-bike-run. Your fitness watch is going to be your friend as it will count your laps and track your miles and many of them will also keep track of your transition times. If you don’t have a watch for swimming, please have a friend count laps for you. We will leave one rack on the lawn for the week for your bike, although I recommend locking it or having someone watch it since a little extra transition time isn’t going to affect anyone. When you have finished your triathlon, you will submit proof of distance and time (distance is more important than time since it is non-competitive) to hello@platteriverfitness.com. All finishers will receive a race shirt and finisher’s medal. The kids will also receive shirts and finishers’ medals. There will, of course, only be participation points awarded for the Points Competition, not placing points, and you must complete the virtual triathlon if your goal is to be an Ultimate Finisher. It will count toward your event totals for both Finisher’s categories. Everyone would rather be in-person, and I acknowledge that. I have loved this race longer than anyone but an inconvenience this year will make swimming in a brand-new pool even more exciting in the future.
Another change you will see this season is in the Hero’s March. The race directors are eliminating the partner division in both the 6-mile and 12-mile distance for both the ruck and the run as well as eliminating the kid’s mile. Keep that in mind as you plan out your training. Our athletes are up for the challenge and many of you have continued to include rucking in your activities throughout the year. The Twilight 5K and Mile will remain the Friday night before the Hero’s March. I am not sure that we will have the “Double Time Double” again this year. The PRFS covers the cost of that incentive so much of what we do there will depend on cost.
There will be a bigger change in July that we are excited to tell you about. It’s not so much a change as an addition. Cornhusker State Games has asked to partner with the Platte River Fitness Series. We share similar goals so it seems like a good match. The Cornhusker State Games Cycling Tour was moved to North Platte last year in an effort to make the Games and the work of the Nebraska Sports Council better represented in outlying areas of the state. We know that cycling is engrained in active communities and that the Nebraska Sports Council has done the important work of getting Nebraskans up and moving for four decades, so supporting them and cycling is aligned with our values and our mission. The Cycling Tour is a non-competitive event with a distance for everyone, 7 miles, 25 miles, 50 miles and 100 miles. (In the cycling world, a “Century Ride” is a pretty big deal!) PRFS athletes who participate in the Cycling Tour will be given bonus points for the Points Competition, based on their distance (TBD). It will not be required for the Finisher’s Challenge at either level. It is for bonus participation points only. Of the three original PRFS events, one was a cycling event at Lake Maloney. Our first event was a triathlon. We have roots in cycling, and we are honored that Cornhusker State Games loves what we do and has asked us to be their partner. Entries are actually open on the CSG website and a new page on our website will be available soon.
One final change of note you already know about, but I have some new information related to it. The Autumn River Run was retired last year but one of the things we’ve seen is a real desire for a marathon to return to North Platte. We have a potential race director, and plans are in the very early stages to welcome a new marathon in October once the Rec Center is completely finished in 2027, so marathoners take heart! The marathon will be called simply “The Memorial Marathon.” If you’ve done marathons elsewhere you know that honoring a loved one by running 26.2 miles is a revered tradition. Rather than memorialize a single person, the race will invite runners to wear something or carry something to symbolize their beloved, bringing them into our community of athletes, even if only in spirit. We think it will be very special.
The beginning of a new season is always exciting for me, a bit overwhelming, and always full of uncertainty. Weather is often at the center of that uncertainty, but participant turnout, courses, sponsors, volunteers, the potential for injury and medical emergencies, shirts that look great or not so great and medals that arrive on time also bring uncertainty that is part of this work and part of being human. I am grateful to have a whole community alongside me in the uncertainty of any new season. Whatever it brings us, we will run (or walk, swim or bike) toward it together!