In the shadow of COVID's formidable impact, grade school children are venturing into a competitive arena much simpler yet far more terrifying than their favorite video games: elementary mathematics. This brave group of youngsters has taken to the outdoors this summer in the newest Olympic sport sensation – Math Relays. The usually tranquil surroundings of a South Seattle Elementary school came alive recently, with students competing with, not each other, but their own learning losses thanks to the pandemic-induced educational debacle. "Billy, don't just chill, multiply!", shouted a young girl named Cindy to her teammate, who was attempting to multiply 8 by 7 with the speed of an escargot. Her frustration at his pace echoed the widespread sentiment of educators and parents alike struggling with the strain of virtual learning. The nonprofit organization School Connect WA has established a ground-breaking (and possibly hip-breaking) summer program that combines elementary math with the universal passion for running. It's essentially a playground version of The Amazing Race, but with math flashcards in place of million-dollar prizes. 25 students are fighting the summer heat and the pandemic learning slump while their tech devices gulped power inside. Mathematician-wannabes raced down a makeshift track, multiplied numbers, and scribbled answers on a table before heading back to their team. Replace the multiplication table with a baton, and they could basically be giving Usain Bolt a run for his money. The math relay is an ingenious concept – unless, of course, you throw in something like division. In which case, children might prefer the simpler and less traumatic leisure of calculus or even re-learning Zoom meetings. For a young mind, division and a partially finished relay are both divisions of their nightmares. We're not sure if the children are seizing the dangerous fun of outdoor mathematical relays due to the sheer desperation of escaping monotonous Zoom calls or they're hoping that sprinting might stimulate their neurons to remember what 5x5 equals. In either case, we tip our hats to these young crusaders for daring to look at multiplication tables outside a computer screen. This summer, it's possible that elementary schools might become the new boot camp, where multiplication is the new push-up!