This years BHAA Cork to Cobh 15-mile road race should have taken place on Sunday the 4th of October 2020 but needless to say, it was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This is one of the most popular long distance races on the calendar and it attracts runners from all over Cork and Munster. If it had been held, it would no doubt have attracted hundreds of runners.
The question is when are we likely to see it again? For that matter, when are we likely to get back to any type of normality in terms of road races and parkruns?
When the COVID lock down started in March, many of the races scheduled for the Spring were deferred until the Autumn. Now we are in the Autumn, many of the races are of course cancelled until 2021. A bit like kicking the can down the road.
Is it likely we will see races in 2021? I was watching an interview recently on Deutsche Welle with a German Virologist and he said that it will be 2022 at the earliest before we might see any sense of normality.
First of all, a vaccine will hopefully be found and tested to make sure it is safe. Then it will take time to ramp up the capacity to manufacture all the vaccine doses. After that, there is the even bigger task of distributing the vaccine so that enough people are immunised so that the virus can't spread through the population. Until all this happens, it looks as if we will have to live with the virus and there will always be restrictions on gatherings and movements.
I think it we have to be realistic, it's very unlikely there will be any large races in 2021. At best, any races will be restricted to small numbers that preregister or virtual runs.
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