Organisers of the Parkrun have announced when they hope to see the return of events after lockdown.
Parkrun, which launched in 2004, puts on free 5km running events every weekend across the UK, which are attended by thousands of runners at over 700 locations including Lydiard Park.
Organised outdoor sports is allowed from March 29th under government guidance unveiled in the roadmap earlier this week however organisers said “it would be inappropriate” to have large crowds gathering in just a few weeks time.
The running events were put on hold in March 2020 as the first lockdown was announced but organisers say they now hope to be able to start holding the events again from June 5th.
Junior parkrun events – run over a 2km course – will return even sooner, on April 11th.
Global chief operating officer of Parkrun, Tom Williams told the Free Weekly Timed podcast “Clearly, I don’t think many people would disagree, it would be inappropriate at the very beginning of April which is only a few weeks away, for a couple of thousand people to be gathered etc, big crowds of adults would not be acceptable in just a few weeks’ time.”
“We don’t think it would be appropriate to bring 5k parkrun back as part of Step One in the roadmap; Step Two comes in quite soon after that, and again, a thousand people in a park wouldn’t feel particularly right with the limitations around weddings and funerals.
“However, on May 17, when we hope Step Three will start, there’s a real step change in what people can and can’t do and part of that is outdoor events with up to 4,000 people. What we also want to see is other types of events, festivals, concerts, whatever it might be, operating at bigger numbers to make people feel more comfortable about parkrun.
“Step Three is where we feel it would be most appropriate for 5k parkrun to come back in England. The first Saturday is the 22nd of May but Step Three may not be confirmed until the 10th of May and we feel that 12-day gap is a bit small if we have to alter things.
“We are going back two weeks to Saturday June 5th to give us four weeks, and it is our ambition and hope that from June 5 that parkrun will return across England.”
You can find the Lydiard Park Parkrun page using the link here.
