Park run to return 🤞🏻🤞🏻

[Sandie1961]

Reading through the govt roadmap, it says that organised outdoor sports can return from 29 March (in England), subject to governing body rules, and that it will not be subject to numbers. Dare we hope for a return of parkrun?

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10]

I would love to think so Sandie, although knowing what the mass start looks like at most of the ones I’ve done, especially Eastville, it’s quite scary!

[HeavyFoot Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

Exactly my thought chch. I love Parkruns but the thought of a couple of hundred people crowding at the start ....

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to HeavyFoot]

We have upwards of 500 or even 600 people at Eastville ..... 😳😳

[HeavyFoot Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

Wow!

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

I seem to remember that Parkrun have developed covid secure proposals haven’t they? At least we may be able to have up to 30 outdoors if London goes ahead on 31 May 👏👏👏

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Sandie1961]

Hopefully PR can update us soon. They have their work cut out, but I’m sure they have something workable up their sleeve. 🤞

Sounds hopeful for the Vitality though. 👏👏👏

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

London looking doubtful if you look at roseabi ’s quote from the guidance below 😭

[BaddieThePirate Graduate10]

That would be nice 🤞🏼

[Grannyhugs Graduate10]

Yikes, I'd be terrified of going to anywhere with that number of people for a long time yet - canny worried Scot here.

[roseabi]

Large events

132. DCMS and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have been

working with representatives from industry and civil society to explore when and how

events with larger crowd sizes, less social distancing or in settings where

transmission is more likely (i.e. indoors), will be able to return safely. This includes

sports events, music festivals and large weddings and conferences.

133. Over the spring the Government will run a scientific Events Research Programme.

This will include a series of pilots using enhanced testing approaches and other

measures to run events with larger crowd sizes and reduced social distancing to

evaluate the outcomes. The pilots will start in April.

134. The Government will bring the findings from across different sectors and different

settings to determine a consistent approach to lifting restrictions on these events.

Depending on the outcome of this work, the Government hopes to be able to lift

restrictions on these events and sectors as part of Step 4.

Step 4 will take place no earlier than 21 June, and at least five weeks after Step 3,

following a further review of the data against the four tests. As before, the

Government will announce one week in advance whether restrictions will be eased

as planned.

From Covid-19 Response, Spring 2021 assets.publishing.service.g...

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to roseabi]

Thanks roseabi , that’s really helpful. I suspect that means our Vitality London 10000 scheduled for 31 May is going to be cancelled (again!) then 😭😭

[roseabi in reply to Sandie1961]

Yes, I'd think so 😥

[Tasha99 Graduate10 in reply to Sandie1961]

Yes I think Edinburgh will be cancelled and this will be the second time

[TailChaser Graduate10]

I hope I am wrong and I hate to be a damp squib but I suspect that is for group sports Sandie. I suspect it will be later and the individual Parkruns have to get approval from landowners and councils. The parkrun blog is out later today so that may say more, certainly the Free, Weekly, Timed podcast will have more to say.Saying that though, we are definitely nearly there! 👍

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to TailChaser]

It all still feels such a long way off. We’ve effectively been in lockdown since the beginning of November, so 4 months and no real normal for another 4 months 😭😭

[TailChaser Graduate10 in reply to Sandie1961]

I know, it’s horrible. I think the nearer it gets the harder it feels 🤗🤗🤗

[nowster Graduate10]

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley."

The government can make all the plans it wants. Nature may have different ideas.

Remember what happened about Christmas...

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

Ah, but now we have the vaccine, which is proving to reduce hospitalisation and severe illness by up to 95%, which is a massive difference since December

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Sandie1961]

Plus we’re heading into summer which will help reduce infection too. I had emails today from Great Run about the Bristol 10k and GSR later in the year, and they’re saying they’re on. Something to look forward to at least.

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

I had my email about GSR too. Surely that has to go ahead!

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Sandie1961]

Flipping Norah it had better ........ 🤦‍♀️

[Beachcomber66 Graduate10]

In the past there has been a lot of confusion caused by differences between guidance/ministerial statements and the regulations implementing change. So I will reserve judgement until I see the regs! I think that it will be a while before I feel comfortable in a crowd regardless of the regs.....but when the temptation is real I may feel differently.

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to Beachcomber66]

I think if you look at roseabi’s quote from the document, it is probably going to be June before any mass sporting events will be able to happen. Probably not promising for London

[Beachcomber66 Graduate10]

Agreed. London brings in issues such as train travel too; I wouldn’t fancy the drive these days. Park Run doesn’t have the big crowd issue (maybe in some places?) but you are looking at a lot of people together at some stage in the process. For now, it’s the woods for me, early or late run to avoid the tourists!

[Tasha99 Graduate10 in reply to Beachcomber66]

We can do flatts lane parkrun BC, only about 70 people are daft enough to do that one 👍🏽🤣🤣

[Beachcomber66 Graduate10 in reply to Tasha99]

I would need crampons and a rope!! Not tempted 🧗

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to Tasha99]

You intrigued me Tasha, so had to look it up! I’m with Beachcomber66 - Lyme Park was hilly but Flatts Lane looks as bad. Would be nice for a walk though 😂

[Tasha99 Graduate10 in reply to Sandie1961]

It’s fun!

[TailChaser Graduate10]

Here you go Sandie 👍

[Curlygurly2 Graduate10]

I know they have worked out all their regulations etc, but I feel after announcing "the return" in August and having to pull out again they will probably be more cautious, and I tend to agree with TailChaser, although of course I hope it will be different.

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

Sadly, I think that refers to Hockey, Football Clubs etc Sandie. But I hope parkrun will be able to take part in the 'pilots' mentioned from 12 April. It would be a good opportunity to test their new Covid-aware systems. A case of wait and see I fear. 🤔

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to Dexy5]

I suspect London is looking pretty shaky too 😭

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to Sandie1961]

😩

[JonathanP Graduate10]

Today's parkrun blog confirms there will be an announcement on Friday blog.parkrun.com/uk/2021/02...

Fingers crossed!

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to JonathanP]

🤞🤞🤞

[nowster Graduate10 in reply to JonathanP]

My guess is that when they restart the numbers will be limited and starting times will be greatly staggered, to reduce clumping.

[JonathanP Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

That's one option - but quite difficult to manage with the existing volunteer-run model.......

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

Sadly I suspect the landowners/local authorities won’t want park runners on the routes for the majority of Saturday morning to be able to accommodate it

[Tasha99 Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

I don’t think you can limit the numbers at parkrun as you just turn up.

[nowster Graduate10 in reply to Tasha99]

Something similar was going to happen when park runs were expected to return last Autumn.

[Coddfish Graduate10 in reply to nowster]

They did a lot of work last autumn and they at that point weren’t prepared to change to that sort of model - it’s far too complicated. I think we wait for their statement on Friday.

[Coddfish Graduate10]

Tom Williams and his team did a very detailed piece of work last autumn and had permission from DCMS to come back; as organised sport it was deemed exempt from the then current gatherings limits. Obviously it got overtaken by the change in direction of the pandemic, but I understand parkrun were hitting a mix of resistance from landowners and resistance from some of the event teams anyway. Both of those have to be resolved more or less everywhere if you don’t want to end up with only a handful of open events, each of which are generating mass travel.

I think the easiest thing for parkrun to do is to tie opening to step 4, so Saturday June 26th earliest, which should make it acceptable to the communities and landowners. I want it back but I want it to be justifiable to our promenade users. People regularly complain both directly to us and to the council about the impact of our parkrun, and we can’t be the only place where that happens.

We will find out on Friday.

[Sandie1961 Graduate10 in reply to Coddfish]

I suspect you could be right, but at least they do have detailed plans which could hopefully be resurrected/adapted to the circumstances pretty quickly