As you will know the UK government has advised that everyone in the UK should now avoid “non-essential” travel and contact with others to fight coronavirus. Whilst it has not issued any ban on public gatherings of any size either indoors or outdoors at this stage, the advice is to avoid non-essential contact with others, including going to sporting events, pubs, clubs, theatres and social venues.

As a result, England Athletics has advised us that all face-to-face activity such as club training sessions, events, competitions, club committee and face-to-face meetings, athlete camps, running groups and social events should be suspended until at least the end of April.

Wetherby Runners will abide fully with this advice and consequently all organised Club Runs including Juniour runs (Mondays, Wednesdays etc) are suspended until further notice.

Where possible, athletes and runners at all levels are encouraged to maintain their own personal fitness and keep active during this time, while following government guidelines about safe distance and safe exercise environments.

We at Wetherby Runners in conjunction with England Athletics will continue to review and monitor government advice and will provide detailed updates on the impact to our sport in the coming weeks.

Social distancing and advice

Social distancing measures (as defined by Public Health England as spending more than 15 minutes and within a 2-metre distance talking to someone) are now advised not only if we test positive or have symptoms, but in day to day life. As well as current travel advice, the current UK government is advising anyone with a “new, continuous” cough or high temperature and those they live with need to self-isolate for 14 days.

What we can do as a Club

We intend to continue to support our runners with advice around training and fitness during this period. In the coming days we are re-launching our website and this will link to our public (not private) Facebook group. It will also show a Strava feed – and we can already see that many of you remain active and it is great to see your runs pop up on the feed. For those of you who are not yet on Strava it is free and can be linked via your Garmin or Phone usually.

Please keep in touch with your friends and fellow club members via our group Facebook page. Let us know how you are doing, where your favourite running spots are and what tips you may have for your fellow athletes.

As you know there is still a lot of uncertainty around the future of competition not least our own 10k. I can say that the club is financially strong, we had taken a decision that funds in the club should be sufficient to deal without a W10K in any 1 year, and we may well find that this is the case.

Our thoughts and support go out to the wider sporting clubs and communities in our area who will all be suffering from the situation – not least the WSA.

Wetherby Sports Association

The WSA was intending to close for a fortnight during April as Yorkshire Water are doing some major works that will restrict access to the car park. WSA have since taken the step of closing from 23 March for 4 weeks.

On behalf of the committee I would urge all of our members to follow EA’s guidelines and advice. This doesn’t mean you are not permitted to exercise but need to be socially responsible around how you do this and follow the Social Distancing advice. We can all see that this situation is fluid and I will offer, further relevant to the club, updates as and when these are appropriate. Please stay safe and strong and I look forward to shouting out those race results again soon.

Kind regards

Richard