With marathons and races on hold for the time being, runners have to get creative.
Stephanie Northway has done just that with the help of her seven year old son Harry.
Stephanie has had all of her races through May canceled including a 100 mile race in Tennessee.
"I was really disappointed at first and bummed out," Stephanie said. "Then I thought OK I can still run without a race I can just make it my own and that is when my son Harry came up with the idea, just run a hundred miles in the backyard. I was like, oh, OK."
Harry is in first grade and loves Math. So he went to work with his mom using a tape measure and their watches to measure how to get to 100 miles in their backyard, it came out to be 2,500 laps.
"And 650 laps for 26 miles," Harry added, because his mom also runs marathons.
"He did all this mental math in his head," Stephanie said. "He is really good at math."
This race was different for Stephanie and not just because of the short, flat track.
"Well, we played Wheel of Fortune," Harry said.
"He made up a Wheel of Fortune game on his whiteboard," Stephanie added. "And while I was running laps he would make me guess the letters and guess the words."
Stephanie said the backyard race ended up being one of her favorites that she has ran.
"It was fun," Stephanie said. "It kind of made it fun hanging out with my son because usually I don't see my husband and son until like the finish line so it was cool having him with me the entire race."
Stephanie is considering running another 100 mile race in her backyard and Harry already has big plans for it. He calls it the Lightning Race.
"It's a hundred mile race," Harry said. "And you have to run quickly and you only get a certain amount of time."
"I guess he has made up my mind for me," Stephanie said. "I guess I'm going to run another hundred mile race in the backyard."
Harry says the Lightning Race will have a wheel that tells his mom what to do.
