Next year's edi­tion of the T&T In­ter­na­tion­al Marathon (TTIM) will be done vir­tu­al­ly. The ad­just­ment was made by the T&T Marathon Com­mit­tee (TTMC) due to the on­go­ing coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) pan­dem­ic.

"We hope that all run­ners and their loved ones are well and in good health. The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has placed each and every one of us un­der un­ex­pect­ed emo­tion­al and fi­nan­cial stress and has caused us to adapt and to be flex­i­ble in this new sit­u­a­tion," the com­mit­tee said in a re­lease on Sun­day.

"The TTMC is no dif­fer­ent and we un­der­stand how every­one feels, we will main­tain com­mu­ni­ca­tion with all our stake­hold­ers with the view of keep­ing them abreast of changes as they are pre­sent­ed. As such and in com­pli­ance with new health guide­lines laid out by the Gov­ern­ment of T&T through the Min­istry of Health (MOH) and by ex­ten­sion the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics Ad­min­is­tra­tions of T&T (NAAATT), the TTMC have ad­just­ed their races for 2021 on­ly, in­to a vir­tu­al event."

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, the TTIM Vir­tu­al (VR) Marathon & Ul­tra Chal­lenge will con­sist of four races over the dis­tances of 35, 26.2, 13.1 and 3.1 miles. The TTIM VR Marathon 26.2 which rep­re­sents the 39th Edi­tion of our TTIM; the TTIM VR UL­TRA 35, a 56K race which ex­tends on com­ple­tion of the 26.2 marathon dis­tance; the TTIM VR Half 13.1, a re­ju­ve­na­tion of the TTIM Half Marathon, and the TTIM VR 3.1, the race for the fun run­ners.

"The Chal­lenge is out for you the run­ner to raise the bar and com­plete the Ul­tra Chal­lenge!" said

Run­ners can choose any dis­tance or any com­bi­na­tion to re­ceive their race medals. Par­tic­i­pants can al­so team up with friends or go it alone. Run­ners will have a win­dow of three weeks, Jan­u­ary 1-24 to com­plete all races. Lim­it­ed num­bers for each race dis­tance.

"Run­ners in the VR-M 26.2 will have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to beat their age group best time and brag with friends on any course they choose. The VR-H 13.1 dis­tance has been of­fered for the half marathon lovers, while the VR 3.1 or 5K for fun run­ners make it a lit­tle some­thing for every­one.

"Brand­ed prod­ucts will be avail­able to mark this mem­o­rable oc­ca­sion be­ing the first TTIM vir­tu­al races, get yours ear­ly. More race/reg­is­tra­tion de­tails will be post­ed on the TTIM web­site www.ttmarathon.com and so­cial me­dia, such as face­book https://www.face­book.com/TTI­MARATHON/ and In­sta­gram to en­sure un­der­stand­ing of this new for­mat.

"Our spon­sors have been the back­bone of our TTIM suc­cess­es and we thank them for con­tin­u­ing to part­ner with us as we fi­nalise de­tails we in­vite every­one to try out the new for­mat and chal­lenge them­selves for the 2021 and 39th Edi­tion of the TTIM. We en­cour­age you to Stay Safe, Wear a Mask, and Main­tain So­cial Dis­tanc­ing, it will save lives."

The TTIM al­so re­vealed that it is close to meet­ing its char­i­ta­ble oblig­a­tions in pre­sent­ing a cheque for $9,045 to Bri­an Lewis, pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) for the #10Golds24 Ath­lete Wel­fare & Prepa­ra­tion Fund. The fig­ure rep­re­sents pro­ceeds from this year's event and ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, the or­gan­i­sa­tion is look­ing for­ward to sup­port­ing ad­di­tion­al char­i­ties next year.

The 38th edi­tion saw an in­crease in run­ners in the marathon with 242 par­tic­i­pants, of which 120 were ear­ly starters. Women showed a vast in­crease of 57 run­ners, most­ly in the 30-40 age group while men main­tained a strong­hold in the younger and old­er groups.