Yvonne Naughton running toward 2021 race round-the-clock

COVID-19 sidelined the much-anticipated Northern Lights round-the-clock race scheduled here last weekend, but event organizer Yvonne Naughton still managed to stay on track.

Naughton, a local physician and assistant La Conner High track coach, was at Whittaker Field on Saturday taking part in a virtual run fundraiser supporting the Seattle chapter of the NAACP and Campaign Zero, a police reform organization.

Naughton was to have coordinated and participated in a major endurance challenge here drawing top ultra-runners from around the nation.

But the virus crisis put the brakes on that.

“Today was supposed to be the inaugural Northern Lights 24-Hour event, which was unfortunately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Naughton said Saturday morning. “I plan on marking the occasion by running on the track for the Run For Change event.”

Naughton said over 1,500 runners from the U.S. and a half-dozen other nations committed to ‘Run For Change.’ Orca Running and Evergreen Trails, which organized ‘Run For Change,’ donated each runner’s $10 entry fee and fifty cents per completed mile to the cause.

With Northern Lights off the calendar, Naughton entered a virtual climbing challenge the weekend before last.

“I found the steepest local trail I could,” she said, “and set my sights on the top climbing challenge category of reaching the elevation equivalent to climbing Mount Everest twice in a week.”

That totaled over 60,000 feet and forced Naughton to alter her Saturday plans for Whittaker Field.

“I thought I might manage 100 miles,” she told the Weekly News, “but my legs were beat after doing a ‘Double Everest’ last week. I basically accumulated 62,000 feet and 100 miles over six days. So, I had to be satisfied with 50 today.”

Even with Northern Lights postponed and less than ideal weather conditions, Naughton wasn’t alone on the Whittaker Field oval. Others got workouts in between and sometimes during rain showers.

“It was nice,” Naughton said. “I had some friends join me, including Matty Lagerwey, who rode her bike while I ran. Thankfully, the afternoon was nice enough. I got soaked in the morning.

“It was nice to have my husband, Dave, join me for a while,” Naughton added, “and also my friend Kelsey. Then, of course, there were some walkers and kids throughout the day, and I spotted Lynette Cram, too, who remembered that it would’ve been race day.”

Naughton said the plan going forward is to hold the La Conner Northern Lights 24-Hour Race next June.

“For now,” she said, “we’re making June 12 and 13, 2021 our tentative new event date and we promise the same great event we had hoped to share this year.”