parkrun suspended? England Athletics stop own events + training

Parkrun Suspended? England Athletics Stop Own Events + Training

 

Source: England Athletics

All England Athletics events are now cancelled as per the notice (linked). This seems to be partly following government advice and partly because emergency services will no longer attend the events., leaving organisers with no choice.

As well as races this also, unfortunately, covers club training.

My understanding is that Swim England meets tonight (Tuesday) and will almost certainly come to the same conclusion.

British Triathlon updated their guidance over the weekend, here, but will inevitably have to follow the same guidelines.

parkrun has not yet made a statement but my bet is that these too will be suspended. This clearly makes sense as, for example, last Saturday there were over 1000 people ‘competing’ in the Bushy Park parkrun near me.

I’m not so sure about cycling events. Whilst they might not be counted as gathering they WILL be in need of emergency services response which, as I said above, appears to be withdrawn.

Duathlons at Eton, last weekend, were cancelled even when they could have gone ahead under government advice at the time and yet I heard this morning from my June race that they still plan to go ahead (but they won’t, in reality, in my opinion).

The glimmer of hope would be for a resumption in May although even if that resumption slips to June, there should still then be the possibility of triathlon & parkrun

Zwift anyone !

I’m going for a run. On my own.

Good luck with your training.

For training plans, course guides, and the full index of UK parkruns, see the parkrun hub.

Last Updated on 27 May 2026 by tfk the5krunner


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6 thoughts on “parkrun suspended? England Athletics stop own events + training”

  1. I am baffled as to how the UK seems to underestimate the seriousness of this crisis. A half marathon on sunday with thousands of participants and onlookers, really?! If the mainland is any indication you do not know what you are in for. You could have learned from the countries that went before you, but you didn’t. Sorry, just had to say this.

  2. Some of the comments on the parkrun discussions groups is baffling…. the arrogance that, for some reason, parkrun is ‘special’ and must continue is beyond belief.

    1. I know y ou’ll agree that it is special BUT not a special case – it’s also potentially a LOT of people together at the same time. I think the restrictions should have been introduced earlier, perhaps excepting the smaller events but then it comes down to issuing simple message and to differentiate between events would not have been simple.

  3. parkrun UK said they’d make an announcement on Wed 18th so imagine the cancellation notice would come then. parkrun in Ireland & lots of other countries has been cancelled since last week.

  4. Running less than 21km (risk of infection vs amount of cardio is actually a j curve) actually boosts your immune system, but yes the starts of these events are high risks.

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