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English Half Marathon ( Warrington)

7 watchers

jennywren Sep 2019 1:24pm, 10 Sep 2019 15,310 posts	Quote Pin jennywren The website suggests that the road closures weren’t finalised as late as last week which may be a clue. I feel very sorry for the organisers if they’re a different entity from the parent company. I’m sure they’re absolutely gutted to be letting people down like this.
Autumnleaves Sep 2019 1:43pm, 10 Sep 2019 14,019 posts	Quote Pin Autumnleaves There are some roadworks in the town centre that may have caused issues with finalising the road closures/route. I think the route was changing as well? I heard on the local grapevine that the joining/merging with the parent company last year was not a big success even then.
larkim Sep 2019 3:36pm, 10 Sep 2019 8,608 posts	Quote Pin larkim If the organisers were thinking of pointing the finger at the local authority or roadworks etc, I would expect they'd have done that in their press release. The overall press release is so bland that it really says nothing. It uses the word "safe" which people have leapt onto, but given that running a HM on closed roads isn't really particularly dangerous (!) I doubt there was anything really safety related which has caused them to pull the plug - and they are suggesting this is a postponment rather than cancellation. That suggests to me that the issues that people are picking up with companies being dissolved etc is probably a red herring - but I can't quite think what the alternative reason might be. I'm really intrigued - it's a good race, nice and local to me (though I've only run it once).
Autumnleaves Sep 2019 4:26pm, 10 Sep 2019 14,020 posts	Quote Pin Autumnleaves Same here larkim - although I haven't run the Half for some years I've helped out a couple of times and I've done the 10k twice. I do hear mixed things about the main guy - to put it no higher - but my overall impression of the event is that it's pretty well organised and certainly aimed at giving runners a good experience. I can't believe they have taken the decision lightly or easily as the repercussions could be huge. The stuff on the Facebook page must be tough for them to read. I'm not sure how they can reschedule realistically within the year though - the autumn race calendar is pretty packed!
roberton Sep 2019 4:42pm, 10 Sep 2019 354 posts	Quote Pin roberton I've run it half a dozen times (I live in Warrington). The level of organisation has varied a lot in that time but it's generally been better in recent years and was very good indeed last year. So I'm surprised there's been a problem now. I'm with AL in being sceptical about reorganising it, and not just because of the race calendar (a lot of people who do the 10k especially are not doing other events). If your starting pointing is struggling to get everything in place, you can't expect to sort everything for a second go quickly and there's just not a lot of time before winter and xmas come.
Autumnleaves Sep 2019 9:22pm, 10 Sep 2019 14,021 posts	Quote Pin Autumnleaves Sense at club tonight - financial reasons probably behind things. Hence so little explanation at the moment as they find out liabilities - including refunds. Suspect there will be a checking of terms and conditions going on. The organisers of Wirral Half are offering a guided re-run of their course, plus medal.
Homer Sep 2019 7:14am, 11 Sep 2019 13,256 posts	Quote Pin Homer That's nice of them., Very tough on folk who have focussed on this race so this helps
larkim Sep 2019 10:04am, 11 Sep 2019 8,616 posts	Quote Pin larkim Trying to unpick the organisers etc. It seems (based on comments elsewhere and the name of the email route etc) that the current organiser is Vita Incorporated (previously known as EHM Trading Ltd) beta.companieshouse.gov.uk So the Motiv Sports thing may well be a red herring.
UltraDunc Sep 2019 5:22pm, 11 Sep 2019 11,584 posts	Quote Pin UltraDunc I’m off for a seaside 10k 😉 Hopefully by 17:00 tomorrow we’ll be better informed as to what has transpired and have choices of how to move forward.
jennywren Sep 2019 5:09pm, 12 Sep 2019 15,313 posts	Quote Pin jennywren Another email. They’re unable to give an update today as promised but will let us know more next week. They’re really not doing themselves any favours here are they?