← Blackpool Run The Lights 5k & 10K
Before we start I have ran many FCR events and loved everyone of them, I even pace for them often too but last nights event was the worst one by far. I understand that extreme measures were in place due to Covid-19 guidelines but these weren’t communicated properly with the runners before the race.
Apparently they had said that there may be an alternative route arranged if council wasn’t giving the go ahead for closed roads but this wasn’t once confirmed at all to runners. I overheard another runner mention the route 10mins before the race and really only found out myself during the race when we turned onto the “DARK” footpath along the prom and not the “Run the Lights” we were promised. That is another matter as we were running in the pitch black for around 5miles ot the 10k route which wasn’t safe at all. If they had told us of the alternative route then people could have brought head torches etc to help out as it wasn’t safe at all. We didn’t run through any of the Blackpool Illuminations at all so basically we did “Run in the pitch black 10k”
We were also told each runner would be started at 2 sec intervals to comply with social distancing unless people from same household are running together up to groups of 6.
As myself and my wife came towards the start line a complete jobsworth began screaming at us to social distance even after telling him we were husband and wife he still carried on regardless. The way he spoke to us was a disgrace as their rules stated groups of 6 could start together as long as they are from same household, if they wanted every single person to cross the line seperately then they should of said that in the information we received during the week
I will enter more FCR events in the future as they will learn from this and I understand their main focus was on Covid-19 safety last night but better communication would have helped for everyone. This was one of thee first big events to take place under these circumstances so lessons will be learnt from it.
I have ran this event previously and it was a fabulous event. Let’s hope the next one is back to normal