We appreciate that many of you are waiting for an update from us; there is still a lot that’s up in the air, but we wanted to clarify where we’re at and what we know so far.
First, thank you for your continued support and many kind offers of help. As you know, significantly more rainfall than we’ve ever experienced has affected our events over the last few months. On top of that, we received some devastating news behind the scenes that hugely impacted on the work and planning we had put into our 2024 events. With all these factors, and as per our previous update, we have conducted a review of all our races, to confirm the viability, responsibility and safety of each event.
The past few weeks have been extremely stressful for the whole team. We have been proactively speaking to other local race organisers to see if any are able to assist at our planned events to help us deliver them for you.
Giants Head Weekend
The good news is that we have secured some support for the Giants Head weekend from a like-minded company, for which we’re immensely grateful.
However, we are urgently seeking additional help over the race week and on the event days. We need marshals for the weekend, help to set up the course on the Thursday and Friday before, a course pre-runner for the marathon and half marathon, and one more sweeper to collect in signs for the Sydling Hill Race.
We are also looking for use of a 4×4 vehicle for the weekend, which enables us to move aid/water around the route, collect anyone dropping out, and take marshals out for their shifts. If you think you can support with any of these vital roles, then please complete the form detailing what you can help with here: https://whitestarrunning.co.uk/volunteer-marshal/.
If you have any questions or suggestions, then do email us on [email protected].
Once we have the key elements in place, we will be able to reopen entries to the races.
Ox Races
Cancelling events is always a last resort, but the bad news is that we have no choice but to cancel the Ox Races completely. Unfortunately, at this late stage, it is not financially viable to operate, we don’t have the infrastructure in place, and we do not have the financial backing or the time left to plug the gaps. We’ve always promised to be honest, and we can’t deliver the races we planned due to the unforeseen and completely unexpected events that have occurred.
We know several of you had planned this event for celebrations and training for longer runs, so this will be really disappointing news. We will be issuing all runners with a refund, minus system fees, via the payment method used to enter the races. With over 400 runners to process, this will take a bit of time and we ask for your patience and understanding as we work through this.
We will be sending an email out to all participants shortly.
Cider Races
The Cider Races are still TBC, and we don’t have any fresh news for that yet. It is an easier event to put on, but with the addition of the 24-hour race we just need to ensure we have some logistical support to manage and deliver this weekend before we can reopen entries. We are continuing discussions with other local race organisers to see if they are able to assist, and will bring an update on this event as soon as we are able to.
Spring Larmer and Mapperton Muddle
Thank you to everyone who has opted so far to take the virtual options for these postponed races – it’s been great to see you all out and about earning your medals.
We are setting a deadline for those who had entries for either the Mapperton Muddle or the Spring Larmer to choose to take their races virtually; please email the team by Thursday 25th April if you’d like to take this option.
Please do rest assured that if you have an entry to a future race already, your race entries are safe and should any event not go ahead, you will be informed of your options as we’ve been doing up until now.
Also, if anyone has any ideas that we might not have thought of yet, or know of any avenues we could try for event support, do please get in touch via [email protected].
We appreciate your patience as we work through all our communications.
Thank you, as always, for your understanding,
Gemma and the KRR team