Given the social distancing and mass gathering rules . Can we expect most of this years running events wont take place? If sporting fixtures are to played behind closed doors how can you stage a race with thousands on a starting line?
As an example my preferred event is the Snowdonia Marathon and it was only a few weeks ago members of the public were being hounded out of North Wales (understandably so ). Unless the area is on its knees i doubt two thousand plus runners would be welcome. I understand some of the races are late in the year but weeks seem to be flying by without massive improvements.
Some of the city centre runs must surely be in doubt?
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So a race with 40000 people and 750000 spectators and all the back up? Personally think it will be 2021.
My concern with starting parkrun is that if that is the only 'race' option, everyone that has ever run a parkrun will be turning up. There will be a huge pent up desire from regulars as well. So if you take a fairly normal parkrun, they might have an average attendance of 400 (which in itself is the size of many local races) but that is likely to be drawn from a pool of 1200 who don't al turn up week on week. I suspect when it starts, he vast majority of that pool will turn up on the same day, plus those who don't do parkrun as they prefer to limit racing, but this is their only option, plus those who have taken up running in lockdown.
You can't control parkrun numbers. If you try and say the field will be limited to the first 100 that arrive or book in advance, who can stop anyone else turning up? At least with a race you can control numbers.
I cant see any big races taking place in the uk this year, and overseas travel probably wont be back for racing this year either (although it might for other reasons).
Best hope of racing this yr is for smaller (LT 500) type races from Sept/Oct, with distancing at number collects etc
My local 10k is mid july. They didnt open entries in march as normal. They stated they would not spend money or taking entries and would reassess in May. At which point if it looks feasible they will organise at double pace. Last week they decided it wasnt so abondoned to next year. No losses, no one upset.
Silverstone did open entries ages ago, but in my opinion, as with DT19, they should have stopped.
I've not entered anything. Just got my eye on a mara at the end of Sept with a 150 runner field. They state that if the event cannot go ahead you can transfer to another race next year (they organise plenty).
I'm just waiting to get over injury and make sure I can do the training first though. Appreciate I risk it selling out in the interim.
Brighton did say they'd probably offer a decent options package again if sept doesnt happen. Think the April choice was defer to Sept, defer to 2021 or get a refund.
Early bird was £45, which isnt much more than vlm.
However, before you all reach for your credit cards, the borders are closed and no indication of when they may reopen.
Hope this finds you and your families well.
I wanted to ask for your support in completing a short survey (approx 3 mins) on your current feeling towards mass participation events, that will be invaluable in feeding into a wider industry report that I am working on.
https://forms.gle/uSrNXDVwNQtr1rcu6
Your support would be hugely appreciated!
Thank you in advance 😊
It's going ahead with special arrangements, staggered start type thing with no Chip timing, medal, T etc. But £30 a pop, which, as it's a charity run organised by a rotary club is fine, but perhaps not for me!