Women's Only 5K registration will open Monday

While our taxes are due Monday, the day also offers an opportunity to help fund an important cause in our community.

Registration will open for the 2021 Women's Only 5K Walk & Run in Greensboro.

Cone Health's race, in its 29th year, is a fundraiser for its Mammography Scholarship Fund, helping pay for about 600 mammographies annually, and for the Alight Program.

The entry fee is $30, and non-runners can sign up as Pink Ribbon Partners for $20. Click here to learn more and to sign up.

The decision by organizer Cone Health to go virtual for a second straight year will give runners flexibility on their race course and dates, from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2, if not the traditional, and emotional, race-day experience on the first Saturday in October.

Jill McAllister, the race director and a corporate events manager for Cone, explains how the 2021 race will work:

Cone's decision to go virtual came amid information that had been available over the previous few weeks, before the CDC announcement Thursday and before Gov. Roy Cooper's lifting of restrictions Friday. The Women's Only traditionally involves about 2,500 runners and walkers, breast cancer survivors, vendors and hundreds of volunteers but is managed by an efficiently sized staff.

The 2020 virtual event raised about $34,000 with about 900 participants. In 2019, the Women's Only raised about $90,000 with 2,500 runners.

McAllister explains more about the race's position in the community:

Her experience as this race's director has given McAllister an added perspective, even when the 2020 5K wouldn't be normal and as the pandemic prompts a second straight virtual Women's Only.

"They're loyal, and they are determined, and they're strong," McAllister says of the runners. "They are so excited to do this race, no matter what form it comes in. It's so much more about their spirt and their attitude."

Here's more from McAllister:

Image used in post and in video courtesy of Women's Only 5K Walk & Run page on Facebook.