Here are the details for the “Spirit Contest” for the Rochester Regional Health System Flower City Challenge, specifically the Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) on Sunday, October 25th and how neighborhoods can win money.

The top two “Most Spirited” water stops will be chosen and the winning group or organization will receive a cash prize.  1st Place will receive $750.00 and 2nd Place will receive $500.00 to go towards a beautification project in that neighborhood. The contest will be judged in two ways.

• The primary way will be from select volunteers who will be on the course
• A post-race survey will be sent out to all participants immediately after the race asking for which water stop had the most spirit

What defines “spirit”? We shall leave this up to your individual areas creativity, but frankly, the sky is the limit. The majority of these runners really, really need your support and they love whatever you can dish out. Spirit includes having great music along the course, crowd support and cheering, signs, costumes, lots of noise, excitement, energy – simply put “A LOT of SPIRIT”.

These are the defined “Spirit Zones” – keeping in mind that they need to be clear because athletes may not know specific streets/areas etc….So these zones are broad. The Neighborhood Spirit Zone contact name is next to the zone. We also recommend that maybe you have big signs up that say “Spirit Zone 1 Start” and “Spirit Zone 1 Finish” so runners have something to read and know the zones.

• Zone 1 (Mile 1ish): Ellen Wheeler/Dawn Noto – Susan B Anthony Neighborhood from Canal Street @ West main through Madison Street. Time frame – 7:30 am to 8:30 am ish
• Zone 2 (Mile 3-4 ish): Sib Petix – East Avenue Neighborhood from East @ Alexander to East @ Brunswick. Time frame – 7:40 am ish to 8:45 am ish
• Zone 3 (Mile 4.5 – 5.5ish): Jimmy Catalano – Park Ave Neighborhood from Park @ Brunswick to Park @ Goodman. Time Frame – 7:50 am ish to 9 am ish
• Zone 4 (Mile 6.5ish): Dave Chappius – Swillburg Neighborhood from Goodman @ Pearl Street to Goodman at S. Clinton (at the Cinema). Time Frame – 8 am ish to 9:30 am ish
• Zone 5 (Mile 7ish): Mary Staropoli – Highland Park Neighborhood from S. Goodman @ Crawford to the tip-top of the hill at Pinetum before they turn down Doctors. Time Frame – 8 am ish to 9:40 am ish
• Zone 6 (Mile 10-11ish): Colleen McCarthy – The river path along Wilson Blvd at U of R. Starting from Elmwood to the old RR Track past the Track. Time Frame – 8:15 am ish to 10:30 am ish

If you have any questions or want to contact your neighborhood head please don’t hesitate to contact us at events@yellowjacketracing.com.