For athletes across 9 countries, Tuesday marked the first day of the virtual Boilermaker.
Geoff Hale and his friend Michael Brych ran the 9.3 Mile course together in under in an hour.
But says it felt much more different than they're used to.
The normal Boilermaker ambiance was noticeably absent.
Runners got an early start this morning, news channel 2's brent kearney spoke with two that say this is one boilermaker they wont forget.
For runners across nine countries, today marks the beginning of boilermaker week.
Geoff hale and his friend michael brych ran the 9.3 mile course together in under in an hour.
But says it felt much more different than they're used to.
.
None .
None "given what they were dealt with, it a perfect way to do it.
Giving people an option to get out an complete.and try to put down times to keep streaks alive."
Michael says the streak he's got going is pretty special.
Today's run marks his 22nd consecutive race.
"my dad and i started running back when i was in 7th grade.
I missed one year because i was injured, but i've been running them ever since."
As traffic drove past them during their morning run, brych said the normal boilermaker ambiance was noticeably absent.
"without the mitigation of traffic but the group fortunately this morning was alot of experienced runners so we were able to conduct the run with no incident."
"it was strange it was just quiet.
You miss the comraderee of the people around you.
Obviously just to have other people around you running and suffering along with you.
You kind of miss that."
But both are hoping for the race's triumphant return next year.
"i'm hoping for things to return to normal.
Hopefully we can grow from this and have the event come back bigger than ever before.
I think the enthusiasm behind a return to a presigous race like the boilermaker is going to be huge."
In utica brent kearney news channel 2 > crews are still on scene of a