In 2021, a covid shortened Track and Field season included not one, not two but THREE Dublin Distance Fiestas. Just like you can eat too much candy, you can probably have too many Dublin Distance Fiestas although many coaches and athletes were super thankful for Dublin Coach Chris Williams for hosting three high-quality meets despite multiple covid restrictions.
This season, the Dublin Distance Fiesta will once again be held on the third Saturday of March and this will be the largest DDF to date with 149 schools, 2946 student-athletes, and 4319 total entries. The previous highs were from 2019 with 118 teams and 2633 competitors. According to Coach Williams, the DDF will once again be the largest distance only meet in the United States based on the total number of entries.
Ok, now a bit of history regarding this meet for those of you attending the soon-to-be-world-famous Dublin Distance Fiesta (RIP Peter Brewer). The meet has been held at Dublin HS since 2009 with the lone exception being the 2020 season when it was not held. Before 2009, the meet was held at Skyline HS (one year), Cal Berkeley (one year), and then multiple years at the original location, Piedmont HS.
Here is the schedule for the meet
The meet is also officially linked to the top invitational in the country, the Arcadia Invitational. Along with T-Shirts, bags, sombreros, and plaques, the real prized result for a top finish at this meet will be automatic entries to Arcadia. In the sombrero 1600s, the winners will automatically qualify for Invitational Mile Run. The 2nd and 3rd placers will qualify for the Open Mile.
In the 800s, the winners will qualify for the Seeded 800 while the 2nd place finishers will qualify for the Open 800s.
In the 3200s, the winners will qualify for the Invitational 3200m. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers will qualify for the seeded 3200m.
In the Distance Medley Relays, the winners will qualify for the Invitational DMRs. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers will qualify for the Open DMRs.
We should be able to witness many outstanding races throughout the day and it's amazing the type of effort you will see as novice and experienced runners battle to the wire in order to win one of those prizes mentioned above.