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Boston marathon

More delays

The day after my last blog post, and this from MK Marathon:

We have been working so hard with our partners, including Milton Keynes Council to stage the Rightmove MK Marathon Weekend on 1-3 May 2021. However, unfortunately, due to late Government clarification on the COVID-19 roadmap, including the recent and unexpected ban on spectator attendance, it has been agreed with the council that it is best to postpone the event for a short period.

We have secured an alternative race weekend with the Stadium MK, of 25, 26 & 27 June. Exact individual event dates and times will be confirmed by 14 April once we have had time to consider how the new weekend should be structured.

Stuart Proffitt, Milton Keynes Council Director for Environment and Property said “we have been working hard with the MK Marathon Team to ensure our long-standing marathon is as successful and inclusive as ever. We will continue to work with the MK Marathon Team to ensure a successful rescheduled event during the last weekend of June and we are confident that we will receive statutory approval to proceed with these dates.”

If you are unable to run in the rescheduled event, you will be able to defer your place to the 2022 event at no extra cost. Alternatively, you can transfer your entry to the virtual event at no extra cost.

This has been a real shock this evening as we were expecting to be able to proceed and we were not expecting to be in this position.

It’s not clear to me how one can “ban” spectators from being on the public highway – there is no longer any restriction on leaving the home, only on gathering, so provided households are well spaced, I would have thought there is no legal restriction on spectating. However, what’s done is done.

The status of the thrice-rescheduled Boston Marathon on 31 May hasn’t yet been changed, so that’s now my first target date. It’s still worth keeping the MK option in case Boston is postponed for a fourth time, but whether I should plan for a subsequent (and mid-summer) marathon on my slightly less favoured route, I’m not sure, and maybe I should go back to just the one run if Boston looks certain to go ahead – either by deferring MK to 2022 or getting my refund.

More to ponder, and the marathon training plan is now stretched out even further – my Garmin says my performance is “peaking” which would have been ideal for the original date of 18 April, but I’ll now ease off for a short while to avoid overdoing the training since the current Boston date is six weeks later than originally planned.

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