Information about COVID-19 (coronavirus), exercise, and your race events

[roseabi]

Dear friends,

UPDATE! March 24th, 2020

The latest government advice is that we must stay at home and only go outside for essential journeys (listed below). Luckily for us at the moment, we are allowed to take exercise outside once a day. BUT please be sensible about this, and THINK before you do anything. The guidance is that we should maintain 2 METRES distance from each other, but you should regard this as a MINIMUM. If you go out and find that the area where you usually run is crowded, I suggest you find somewhere quieter to exercise, or turn around and exercise at home that day. By doing this you can save lives!!!

I sincerely hope that most of us will still be able to run outside throughout the coming months! Here follows the most recent guidelines, and our recommendations for keeping fit and healthy:

★ Stay at home to stop coronavirus spreading

Everyone must stay at home to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

This includes people of all ages – even if you do not have any symptoms or other health conditions.

You can only leave your home:

- to shop for basic essentials – only when you really need to

- to do one form of exercise a day – such as a run, walk or cycle, alone or with other people you live with

- for any medical need – for example, to visit a pharmacy or deliver essential supplies to a vulnerable person

- to travel to and from work – but only where this is absolutely necessary

- if you do go outside, stay 2 metres (3 steps) away from other people

★ Go to the NHS Website for advice about how to protect yourself and others from the virus:

nhs.uk/conditions/coronavir...

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ADVICE MAY CHANGE OVER TIME SO THE NHS PAGES MAY BE TEMPORARILY OUT OF DATE!!!

★ Try not to worry!

You have many friends here to talk to ❤️

★ Please do not give up on your exercise, but do be realistic!

If you are unwell, take a break - exercise will always be waiting for you when you are better.

If you are feeling well enough to exercise, but can't go for a run outside, there is plenty you can do at home to keep fit! For a start, I suggest you take a scroll through the Strength & Flex community:

healthunlocked.com/strength...

And there are many amazing resources available online. We will be posting some recommendations in the coming weeks, so look out for those - and please post about your own indoor workouts!

★ If you would like to run a cancelled or postponed race by yourself as a virtual race, have a look at our Virtual Race post here:

healthunlocked.com/marathon...

Wishing you health and happiness,

roseabi, on behalf of the Admin Team

March 13th, 2020

Updated March 24th, 2020

Image source: BBC

[Cantstopmenow Half Marathon]

Thanks for this advice. I hope there will not be too many disappointments. In view of all the uncertainty around health, leisure and employment, I hope that we will all keep well and continue to enjoy the benefits on both body and mind of being out in the fresh air and simply running. X

[Run46 Half Marathon]

Thanks Roseabi, good advice...I'm really really hoping it doesn't come to not being able to go out for a run in the fresh air, but will obviously do as I'm told if needs be 😏

I've just seen that the London Marathon has been postponed until October, 1st of many cancellations or postponements I fear 🙁