I’m not a sentimental guy, particularly about sports. Just because I get a little teary at the end of Field of Dreams doesn’t mean I’m given to getting all mushy at the drop of a batting helmet.

But I am a little saddened about the disappearance of the community fun runs we saw so many of in previous years.

While the North Olympic Discovery Marathon has blossomed into a fine event, the lifeblood of a good running community is shorter races.

Just a few years back, we had the Lincoln Park Run (5k) in March, the Robin Hill Run ( a 15k once, then a 10k) in April, the Sequim RunOff (10k/two-mile) and Port Townsend Rhody Run (12k) in May, the Sequim-P.A. marathon/half marathon in June, the Lavender Festival Run (5k) in July and OMC run (10k) in September, all chased by Jingle Bell and RainDeer (5k/10k) fun run races in the winter.

Gone are the Lincoln Park, Robin Hill and Lavender Fest races. The Rhody is still going strong but the OMC race got kind of absorbed into the marathon; it even takes place on the same day.

The RainDeer and Jingle Bell races are managed well but don’t attract a lot of runners (could be the sub-freezing temps).

I’m just wondering – are any of these going to come back, or did we simply have a glut of community races and they needed to be pared down.

Just curious. What do you think?