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?
Park run to return π€π»π€π»: Reading through... - Bridge to 10K
Park run to return π€π»π€π»
I would love to think so Sandie, although knowing what the mass start looks like at most of the ones Iβve done, especially Eastville, itβs quite scary!
Exactly my thought chch. I love Parkruns but the thought of a couple of hundred people crowding at the start ....
I seem to remember that Parkrun have developed covid secure proposals havenβt they? At least we may be able to have up to 30 outdoors if London goes ahead on 31 May πππ
That would be nice π€πΌ
Yikes, I'd be terrified of going to anywhere with that number of people for a long time yet - canny worried Scot here.
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...
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! π
"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...
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
Plus weβre 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 theyβre saying theyβre on. Something to look forward to at least.
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.
Agreed. London brings in issues such as train travel too; I wouldnβt fancy the drive these days. Park Run doesnβt 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, itβs the woods for me, early or late run to avoid the tourists!
We can do flatts lane parkrun BC, only about 70 people are daft enough to do that one ππ½π€£π€£
Here you go Sandie π
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.
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. π€
Today's parkrun blog confirms there will be an announcement on Friday blog.parkrun.com/uk/2021/02...
Fingers crossed!
My guess is that when they restart the numbers will be limited and starting times will be greatly staggered, to reduce clumping.
That's one option - but quite difficult to manage with the existing volunteer-run model.......
Sadly I suspect the landowners/local authorities wonβt want park runners on the routes for the majority of Saturday morning to be able to accommodate it
I donβt think you can limit the numbers at parkrun as you just turn up.
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 donβt 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 canβt be the only place where that happens.
We will find out on Friday.