Thanks to the 170 or so of you that took the time to vote on the online poll. There were two reasons for conducting the poll...
1) It gives an overview of what the general running community think about the future race situation as opposed to the opinion of an individual.
2) There is a concept called the 'wisdom of the crowd'. If you ask enough people a question, the answer you get can be remarkably accurate.
The poll question was... Do you think the 2020 Cork City Marathon will go ahead in September?
Now the results!...
52% said definitely not.
36% said probably not.
7% said maybe.
5% said probably will.
0% said definitely will.
Even though it's easy to be wise after the event and say that the results are as expected, I would have thought more people might have opted for the middle 'maybe' option.
Considering that 88% of people think the Cork City Marathon won't go ahead then it's very likely that it will be cancelled. It's hard to imagine that many people entering with those figures.
I would think the poll also suggests that we are very unlikely to see any type of the usual road race in 2020.
I saw that one politician say yesterday that 'social distancing' will be the new norm for the next 18-14 months. We probably have a long way to go before the running scene is back to normal.
Michael says,
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of truth & positivity in what is said by Alan in an earlier response. Those thoughts are mirrored in some interesting articles on another site ‘Runnersworlduk’, particularly logistical problems on start line. Some of my thoughts, ‘lockdown’ seems to have produced a lot more runners. This is a welcome fact, a boost for our activity, but what about races that were already being sold out far in advance!!! Above website has it that major event organisers will be watching smaller events unfold in order to form sensible habits. Racing, I think, will be so much different. Maybe for the moment, the pure enjoyment of running Is to be our lot.
It's very hard to see 'mass participation' races coming back any time soon.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there will be a way of holding much smaller local races with very limited numbers.
I suppose we will have to wait and see what the guidance is from Athletics Ireland over the coming weeks/months.
Could be 2023 or 2024 before vaccine, so thats probably when there will be road racing for large numbers again.Social distance is the major barrier at the moment....
ReplyDeleteBy chance someone decides to run the Cork marathon course on its June date any such person should be banned from road races and park runs for live. Anyone is entitled to run the marathon distance if it is safe to do so within 5km of their home any day of the week.
ReplyDelete