Adult parkruns set for June return – and event ambassador Dave Williams admits: It’s right to be cautious

Organisers have identified Saturday, June 5 as the day they hope the 5k community run will be finally restarted for all across the country.

Locally, events are held at six venues – Southsea, Portsmouth Lakeside, Havant, Lee-on-the-Solent, Fareham and Whiteley.

They are planning to start junior parkruns again for children between the ages of 4-10 from April 11.

Williams, who is events director for Havant parkrun and an ambassador for the organisation, says it's great to have some light at the end of the tunnel for an event that's been on hold since last March because of the pandemic.

However, the Waterlooville resident reiterated optimism surrounding the positive parkrun news should come with some caution as a restart still depends on Covid-19 cases and data.

Williams said: 'I’m delighted that we finally have dates in place.

‘We must be realistic, as Boris (Johnson ) has said, there are no guarantees these phases will move every five weeks.

‘We need to be cautious, we need to understand these dates are not guaranteed, but at least we have dates in place so that’s really good news.

‘It’s the right thing that we’re not trying to start the Saturday events until June.

'By then large events, particularly sporting events, will be beginning to happen so the public will be in a better frame of mind to accept large parkruns going ahead.'

Williams feels the UK branch of the organisation were right to err on the side of caution when revealing a planned return date.

He believes it will provide parkrun venues across the country time to get courses back up to the required standard and also assemble the high volume of volunteers needed for the safe running of events.

Williams added: 'When we first stopped we thought it would maybe for two or three months.

‘Those who were less optimistic felt it would be back by Christmas, but now it’s the summer of the following year - 15 months is a long time.

‘But it’s the right thing to do, the pandemic is running its course.

‘We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and June.

'We need to talk to land owners and get their permissions and consider our courses because a lot has gone on in the last year. We might have to make changes to courses, do new risk assessments, we need to check our defibs are in date and usable and all the equipment is still there and usable.

'Remember, we need to get all our volunteer teams on board and, of course, some people will be more apprehensive about starting up than others.

‘The later we leave it the better chance we’re going to get enough volunteer teams so we can properly support all the parkruns in England.

‘It’s good that we’ve got two or three months to get ourselves prepared for a start and make a success of it in June.'