This project answers the question: how do you combine a race, a hip hop dance class, a beer fest, and an arts festival and then make it all happen in a 1 mile sprint. The answer: the RACE TO Series. Yinz Run Club (YRC) will be doing this on Saturday, March 19th and then over and over and over across Pittsburgh.

The RACE TO Series will be the culmination of the community engagement activities and the relationships built with local businesses by Yinz Run Club across Pittsburgh. This Series of 1-Mile Sprints will be put on every 6 months and the focus will be to celebrate a mutual love of running, moving, being active, and to celebrate the local businesses, creatives, and artists in the neighborhoods that we are travelers in.

Running is often a very transient activity. In and out, no stopping, and probably very little conversation with the community members you move past. Interestingly, you do learn the streets, the stores, the business, the organizations that you move through because you amongst them, on the street. Yinz Run Club’s goal with the RACE TO series is to create the space to allow runners to engage with the community more thoughtfully and to celebrate those places that have fed, sheltered, and indulged a misfit group of runners each week.

On an organizing note, the RACE TO Series will be a 1-mile run with multiple engagement points along the route where runners will stop, complete a short activity sponsored by a local business, leader, or organization. After the race, runners will be encourage to spend time in community with musical performances from local artists, personal introductions to local businesses, and doing so in an intentionally crafted light, fun, and silly environment.