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Covid-19 Contingency Actions and Event Rules
We are making hundreds of changes to make this years event safe and so it follows the latest government and UK Athletics Guidance (specifically concerning covid-19).
Significantly Reduced Capacity
Following consultation with Manchester Metropolitan University (the world’s leading university in crowd science), we have reduced our 10K capacity by a third and planned the event based on the flow of crowd movement before, during and after the event (all socially distanced).
Brand New Linear Course
Our new course has been designed to separate our start and finish line and provide maximum width on the course.
No Spectators
The race will take place fully inside the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew where we are fully in charge of the attendance. Sadly, no spectators allowed in Kew Gardens (spectators can join runners inside Kew after the event).
Congestion
We have redesigned the event layout so that this is a throughput of people and runners are not held as a mass gathering. Sadly, this also means no music stage or entertainment (including food/drink vendors) that might cause congestion.
Track and Trace System
Each runner entered into the event has given us their contact information. Due to the timing system, the details we collect from every participant and the allocated start times, allows us to know who each runner has been overtaken by.
More Space & Holding Areas
We have increased the size of our event village and designed it to flow runners in the same direction and allow us to manage separate zones.
The event village will be broken down into several pre-race holding areas. Each of these areas will be monitored by staff to allow social distance capacities.
Runners will be broken down into different arrival times to reduce the number of runners in one area.
Runners will only be allowed to enter the event village 1 hour before their allocated start time.
Additional Car & Bike Parking
Increased capacity of local car and bike parks to encourage less people to use public transport.
Protection
Volunteers and staff will wear face masks at all times as well as gloves and protective visors where necessary.
We encourage runners to arrive with a mask and will also be given a souvenir running buff. We encourage face coverings in the race village areas but runners not have to wear them when running.
All staff and volunteers will be tested with a temperature gun upon arrival.
Hygiene
Make use of all the many hand sanitisers available.
Medical staff will be welcoming and assessing runners as they enter event with temperature guns and offer additional Covid-19 advice to runners.
Staff/volunteers will be present when runners arrive to offer any COVID advice or questions you may have.
Enhanced cleaning regimes for toilet facilities will be put in place.
Toilet amounts will be increased and separated. Socially distanced queues will be monitored for toilets, baggage, and information tent.
Baggage will be spread over a much larger area to prevent gatherings of people.
Event surfaces will be kept to a minimum and will undergo a vigorous cleaning regime throughout the day to kill the virus off surfaces.
Waves
We have more waves with fewer people per wave. Each wave will be socially distanced with 4 runners crossing the start-line every 2 seconds and each wave is rolling (not a mass start).
Water station ‘Help Yourself Only’
Water will be in bottles/cartons and are to be collected from the tables provided. No water will be handed to runners.
We will have more tables to prevent bunching and maintain social distancing
Runners are encouraged to bring their own water.
Rules and Social Behaviour
We will enforce new race rules that runners are only permitted to run on the left side of the course and overtake on the right if there is space to do so.
Runners reminded not to run if they have any symptoms and also encouraged to inform the event and report their symptoms via the Government’s Trace & Trace App.
Runners should not run with friends or in groups, staff will be enforcing this on the route.
There will be no pacemakers.
Social Distance Finish
Volunteers will be in place to enforce social distancing and keep everyone moving to maintain flow.
Medals, water and goodies will be pre-packed in your finisher drawstring sports bag by staff adhering to Covid regulations and wearing gloves and masks.
No de-chipping. The timing chip is disposable this year and located on your race bib.
Additional medical tents and covid-19 specific isolation tents.
Important
Clear signage, floor markings, and reminders to sanitise and social distance.
We are working closely with Richmond Upon Thames Public Health and Events team to monitor the localised Covid-19 figures. We will not put on the event without permission and unless we feel it is a safe event.
All of the above measures do not work without the cooperation of our runners, please only come to our event if you are willing to work with us and make this a safe event.
Please check out some of the rules that we are putting in place and the up to date government guidance from Run Britain here.
On top of all the changes we have made it will be reassuring to many of our the runners to read the following two links. The first one is an executive summary commissioned by parkrun detailing he low risk of transmission from outdoor running. Click here
The second article explains more about aersol transmission related to exercise that should reassure our runners further. Click here
Best wishes,
Tom, Jade & Sarah
ADDITIONAL RACE DAY ADVICE:
- Arrive wearing a mask and keep this on until you get to the start line where you can dispose of your mask in bins provided. You do not have to wear this during the run.
- Please wherever possible, do not bring any baggage to the event. This is to protect both yourself and our staff.
- Please respect social distancing before, during and after the completion of your run.
- Immediately upon finishing we request that you make your way to the Gardens exit where in Brentford Car Park you will find water, goody bags and medals. It is of critical importance that the area around the finish line is kept clear to ensure everyone’s safety.
- We know you may want to congratulate other runners on a great run, but please refrain from doing so in a physical way!
- Please remember to carry out a COVID-19 self assessment accessible at: https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19.
The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are:
- a high temperature - this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
- a new, continuous cough - this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
- a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste - this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal
Importantly do not travel to the event if you have been contacted by Track and Trace, are experiencing any of the above symptoms or are awaiting the results of a test.
If any of the above applies to you, you can still run the 10K virually and we will send out your medal, drawstring sports bag and buff to you in the post.
Get a test to check if you have coronavirus
For more information please visit this NHS corona virus website. Click here
