Guidance for GROUP RUNS returning on MONDAY 19TH JULY
Guidance on how you can help keep everyone safe
July 13, 2021
Most legal restrictions on social contact will be lifted on Monday 19th July meaning GoodGym group runs can return. Below is our guidance on how we plan to keep everyone safe, and what you can do to help.
Following the Government's confirmation that England will move into step 4 of their roadmap out of Lockdown on Monday 19th July we are pleased to confirm that GoodGym group runs in England and Wales will also be able to return on this date.
In May we released our risk assessment for the return of group runs including additional mitigations to reduce the risk of covid transmission at start locations, tasks and when running and walking in groups together. Over the past 16 months we have had to balance the risk to runners, task owners, older people and the general public in deciding if and how our activities can happen. The vaccination programme is continuing and at the time of writing 69% of the adult population have had their first vaccination, and 52% have had both. This appears to have weakened the link between infections, hospilisations and deaths although infections are continuing to rise and therefore we believe it is right to proceed with caution and to keep the mitigations announced in May in place.
An assessment of the risks of group runs:
Below is an assessment of the risks of returning to group run activity in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic. You can expect these additional mitigations to be in place at group runs in England and Wales from Monday 19th July.
GoodGym recognises that everyone has their own personal level of acceptable risk in relation to the transmission of Covid-19, and that the mitigations above are to protect the wider group. Everyone must to adhere to them, irrespective of personal views on the risk of transmission, in order to reduce the risk to others.
Additional flexibility
Below is a summary of further changes announced previously, repeated here as we prepare for the return of group runs.
These came out of the workshop and surveys we held with runners last year and will help us achieve our objective of offering more sessions in every area by being more accessible and inclusive. Read the principles we agreed here. Area activators now have much more control over when and where sessions happen which will allow us to better serve the communities in which we operate. Each area will have at least one group session every week and there will be much more flexibility over when and where this happens.
Start locations: Area activators and run leaders will be free to choose to start group runs at different locations or to maintain the same one in order to best suit the needs of the group. This flexibility can allow us to reach more organisations in different locations through group runs.
Days and times: Area activators and run leaders will be able to organise group runs on a regular day if they choose to and will have the choice to organise them at different days and at different times if they see fit. This will allow us to be more accessible to those runners who cannot make evenings, and better serve task owners who require help at different times of the day.
Safety training: anyone who attends a group run or a community mission will have to complete short online training in order to participate. This only needs to be done once. This is being introduced in order to better manage risk on group sessions, and make everyone aware of the key health and safety points when attending a task. Everyone will need to sign up to a group run before attending: you will no longer be able to turn up without registering in advance.
What next?
We're looking forward to seeing you at a session soon. Find a session in your area here
Over the coming weeks we will continue to monitor the situation, assess the risks and listen to the views of the GoodGym community.