London marathon = will it go ahead?

[Hairyfairy01]

So the London marathon is currently due to go ahead on April 26th. I believe it has around 43k runners (including lots of international runners), plus obviously all the spectators, Marshall’s etc. Rome and Paris have cancelled. Do people think the London marathon will go ahead?

No

I think the odds are slim to none.

Really feel for all the runners, I have run it before and I know what a huge investment of time and emotion the training and fundraising is

I am so worried.... supposed to be running it this year

One is running a different marathon a few weeks prior and so far it is going ahead. However, one is fully prepared that it may be cancelled in due course. It's not looking positive for any large crowd events at the moment.

I'm meant to be running it this year as well, suppose to be running 16 miles this weekend. I can't see it happening and even if it does happen I'm not sure I want to be there to be honest. I just hope they decide quickly, I hate uncertainty!

Can't see it myself, ditto Brighton a couple of weeks earlier.

They should cancel now, so that people can cancel hotels/travel etc (if possible) and they can stop training so hard, too.

My son has an athletics meeting in two weeks - I also wish they'd cancel that. The meeting itself is small, less than 100 people, but many of the officials are quite elderly, and it will involve quite a lot of travel for a lot of us (most athletes in the south but it's taking place in South Yorks) so mingling in M1 service areas etc. It could easily be postponed until October.

Lots of half marathons this month too, wonder how many will go ahead. Reading and Bath are large events.

Also going to a concert in about 10 days - and am waiting for that to be cancelled too!

They cancelled Tokyo and just had the elite race. They may do similar with London.

Official announcement is 'watch this space'

Outdoors event, at the end of April (ie after flu/respiratory season) so maybe it can.

London is filled with tens of thousands of potentially germy people rubbing up in close proximity on a daily basis anyhow. So not sure nee cancellation not any more than today's Twikenham fixture needed cancelling

The Big Half went ahead in London last weekend - 20,000 runners

I thought it would be cancelled but read this and not so sure now: www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/mar/06/london-marathon-organisers-fear-unofficial-runs-if-race-is-cancelled

Im running Manchester marathon on April 5th. It will be my first marathon. I'm already really nervous and this uncertainty is really messing with my head! Hoping it will be OK> Not so many international runners at Manchester so fingers crossed. But guess we just have to wait and see.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/mar/06/london-marathon-organisers-fear-unofficial-runs-if-race-is-cancelled

So what? People are out running along the streets of London every day and they won't stop unless everyone is ordered to remain at home like in China and the lockdown areas of Italy.

I think it will. If it doesn't there will be 1000s who decide to run the course anyway causing it's own kind of chaos

And of course there's the unofficial reverse marathon.

An appeal to runners to stay at would probably work well. But it's not really the runners who are the problem, because aside from the wait in the start pens, they do not spend time in close proximity, and the only thing they touch in common are the portaloos. If you had (even more) plenty of them, you could do a rolling spray clean on them, plus provide hand sanitizer (seen as standard at some races - seems to depend on the portaloo provider what is standard)

If start pens are made larger, or loaded later, that couid mitigate the other risk.

Otherwise, I suppose they'll just have to let everyone defer until next year. (I don't see how they could find another date for a postponed major road closed event over that much of central London - even a short 10k had to be cancelled not postponed when a storm hit )

It's not just about risk of transmission though.

The London Marathon requires a lot of on-course medical support to run safely. If the NHS is on its knees by mid-April we are not going to be able to spare doctors/paramedics/St. Johns Ambulance staff to man it.

I'm also not sure the NY marathon cancelled at short notice due to a sandstorm is comparable in terms of unofficial runners; in that case people had already travelled etc. Assuming London was cancelled well ahead of time you wouldn't have huge numbers travelling to run a race that wasn't happening?

Even at parkrun we're pretty crowded together for the first 10 minutes. I know I'm usually close enough to get a lungful of someones unwashed t-shirt BO or garlic breath if they didn't brush their teeth 🤢. If it's spread by cough droplets in the air I assume a run is as good place as any.

The Boston Marathon is now cancelled (according to Athletics Weekly twitter feed).

And still the UK marathons dither...

Not cancelled, postponed: www.baa.org/124th-boston-marathon-postponed-september-14

Unlikely

Nope

DH is supposed to be doing Brighton and London. Can’t see it happening tbh.

He was supposed to be doing a half Ironman to start the season at the end of the month and that’s been postponed.

I was supposed to be doing an ultra in May, which may or may not get cancelled. I’m pregnant now so I was thinking about dropping down to the half distance event but I’ll be secretly pleased if I don’t have to bother

I very much doubt it, coronavirus should just be starting to get into its stride then in the UK.

I don’t know why only Scotland has officially banned gatherings so far. I don’t think any part of the UK should be wasting their emergency services on non-essential gatherings at the moment when they might be needed elsewhere.