All things considered, Quentin Minard considers himself to be one of the lucky athletes at the local level.
While most of his Bradford High School classmates that play other sports are unable to work on their crafts during the COVID-19 pandemic because of a lack of equipment or open facilities, Minard has been able to showcase his — virtually and globally.
Minard is among the thousands of runners across the world competing in socially distanced 5Ks. The virtual runs, sponsored by the Wolf Creek Race Management team, encourage runners to go out by themselves, or in a small group, and clock their time on a course of their choosing.
Those who register are given a performance t-shirt, a custom finisher medal and are even entered into a drawing for toilet paper.
Ten percent of all race registration fees are then donated to the World Health Organization to help combat COVID-19.
Minard, a junior at BAHS, completed his 5K out on the McDowell Trail at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford last weekend. And despite not having any school sanctioned runs in over a month, he finished the 3.1-mile course in a personal-best time of 18:06.
“Having this and knowing about this gave me a goal to keep in shape and to keep running,” Minard said. “I have goals and I’m trying to keep up with them. I want to complete those goals whether I’m with the team or not.”
Minard is a three-sport athlete with the Owls, running cross country as well as indoor and outdoor track.
He said that although he hasn’t had much communication with his coaches since the spring sports season was canceled on April 9, he’s been working out on his own everyday.
“I try to get out and run everyday for at least a few miles,” Minard said. “Days where my legs aren’t feeling up to par, I’ll probably stay in and do some workouts at home. But I do something everyday.”
Wolf Creek has been keeping track of the times from its first round of virtual 5Ks for the past month and will release the results and compile a global leaderboard over the next few days.
It’s all given Minard a chance for something athletic to look forward to — a luxury that some of his friends or classmates don’t have.
“I know a lot of people either lack the equipment or lack the motivation because they don’t have a virtual 5K like I do,” he said. “But it’s kept me motivated and I go out and run our normal cross country team routes, and when I’m not doing that I run out by my house which is like four miles.”
And despite having no idea when practices with his Bradford teammates will begin again, Minard said he has no plans to slow that running routine anytime soon.
“I’m not going to stop running for the rest of spring,” he asserted. “I might do one or two more of (virtual 5Ks) for a better time and then I’m definitely going to do some 5Ks over the summer.”
For more information on the club, or to register for a future virtual 5K, visit: https://wolfcreektrackclub.com
