For many of us, this spring has been a time of transition – working, learning, and even exercising, from home as the Coronavirus has stopped many of our plans in their tracks. We know that coming up with a new routine can be difficult and we’re all striving to be #HealthyatHome while practicing responsible social distancing practices that have changed our routines and day-to-day lives.

In order to help combat some boredom and encourage physical movement, the College of Health Sciences is hosting a virtual 5K and 10K on Saturday, June 27, 2020. We invite you to sign up to run, walk, roll, crawl, etc. a 5K or 10K race as a way to stay moving during this unusual time. While we cannot gather in person, we can carry on in the spirit of camaraderie through participation in the College of Health Sciences’ Wildcat Whisk.

Fund:

Participation in the Wildcat Whisk is $25 for the virtual 5K and $35 for the virtual 10K. Everyone who signs up will get a virtual certificate of completion. 100% of the cost of this race is actually a donation to the College of Health Sciences Student Emergency Fund. This fund provides relief for students experiencing uncertainty around basic needs and/or financial distress, which may otherwise prevent them from continuing their education. The importance of this fund and the impact it can have only grows during times of crisis, such as the one we are experiencing now.

What is a Virtual Run?

A virtual run can be done at any location and time during the open event date, simply choose your location then run/walk/jog/bike or even treadmill your 5K/10K at your pace. Submit a picture of you in your best University of Kentucky gear to be featured on our social media. You can submit photos to chs.alumnirelations@uky.edu or by using #CHSWildcatWhisk.

This race is virtual in order to promote a healthy and active lifestyle while practicing responsible social distancing. For information of the CDC’s guidance related to COVID-19 best practices, click here.

You can monitor the latest COVID-19 updates from the university here.

We’re all in this together and together we will weather this challenge.

Training:

We set the date of this race for the end of June in order to allow people who do not normally run or walk adequate time to train for the race.

We will be hosting a virtual alumni run club in the Runkeeper App. We will automatically invite you to the group based on the email you provide in your registration of the race. You can decide if you want to join or not. This will just be an accountability group with the goal of running or walking at least 3 times per week up until June 27.

We have also created a Facebook Group for the run club – feel free to post pictures from your runs/walks, tips and tricks, or questions here: CHS Wildcat Whisk. You can also invite other people to join our run club here, even if they are not interested in participating in the virtual 5K/10K race.

Register for the race here!