Dear Runner,
Back on July 29th, we shared with you our excitement about the government allowing mass participation events to take place again and how we had worked through the approved governing body guidelines and felt we were able to deliver a covid-19 safe event.
We submitted our covid specific plans, risk assessments, participant and runner codes of conducts to the Dorset multi-agency Safety Advisory Group who expressed no concerns over our plans to host this event on 6th September 2020 or the measures that we planned to implement.
Unfortunately on Thursday evening 13th August we received an email from Weymouth Town Council stating;
‘With regard to your event on 6th September, Weymouth Town Council is asking that you postpone the event until a more suitable time given the widespread concerns being expressed by the community in relation to the holding of mass participation and publicly attended events in the context of Covid-19’.
We were very surprised by this decision and find it quite difficult to understand as Weymouth currently has 10’s of thousands of visitors daily who are completely unchecked and unmonitored. With the checks and measures we had put in place, runners taking part in this event would have been some of the safest in the town.
I am sure you are disappointed and we share this disappointment with you as we were ready to deliver a covid-19 safe Weymouth Half Marathon on Sunday 6th September. The following will now happen:
- The 2020 Weymouth Half Marathon will take place on Sunday 21st March 2021. Your entry will automatically be transferred to this date and you do not need to do anything. Please keep your race number and timing chip that you will still need to use for this event.
- The 2021 Weymouth Half Marathon will take place at the later date of 3rd October 2021. Entries to this event will be open soon.
- Should you prefer to take a virtual run option, this must be completed on Sunday 6th September. Just run 13.1 miles anywhere, send your evidence to alan@justracinguk.com on the same day and we will then send you your finishers medal and buff and remove you from the rearranged 2020 event.
We hope you understand how difficult the current situation is and share our disappointment at the Council’s last minute decision. We hope you are keeping well and look forward to welcoming you to Weymouth soon.
Alan and The Team