We've completed collating all responses from our questionnaire and are now starting to post out medals and t-shirts where pre-ordered and also processing of partial refunds where requested. We all really appreciate your patience and understanding as we plough through the list.
Dear friends
It is with the heaviest of hearts that we find ourselves staring at the screen to try to put into words the crushing disappointment that we must announce the cancellation of the 2020 Beacon Hill Trail 10K & Half Marathon.
Having been cancelled back in 2019 due to unforeseen and uncontrollable event clashes, we looked forward to staging a fantastic event at Beacon Hill in September 2020, but the Coronavirus pandemic has quite literally decimated our sport. There doesn’t seem a week that passes by that events succumb to inevitability.
Within the last few days, England Athletics have released notification of the suspension of licenses for all events until the end of July. Whilst our event was due to be staged in early September, even with the most optimistic view on the future, there simply isn’t going to be any realistic way that we, or any mass participation event organiser for that matter, can effectively stage a sports event safely.
The practicalities of social distancing within our own everyday lives is often challenging enough, now multiply that by a factor of a few hundred and common sense will tell you, it’s just not practical.
Suggestions have been made by some sporting bodies, for 2m spaced queues for registration, 2 second delays between runners starting, 2m distances between runners when overtaking, PPE for marshals, PPE for drinks stations, increased medical cover costs (if it could even be arranged) – the list is endless. Admirable as it may be to try to find a solution, in the real-world, with hundreds of runners in proximity, breathing heavily, spitting (which people do), sweating, shouting, jostling for position – it just doesn’t stack up. Safety cannot be compromised, and we at JackRabbit will not compromise our runner’s safety, under any circumstances.
And now to the most excruciatingly painful part. JackRabbit is a small family-run, home based operation, Andy, Wendy, Craig & Caroline – we’re just normal people with normal lives and normal day jobs. As mentioned, the Coronavirus has decimated the sport, and it’s decimated our little operation. We continue to have ongoing and unavoidable expenses that are required to operate JackRabbit, but with the cancellation of our entire event calendar for 2020, with zero income this year and next, along with zero available assistance from any form of grant funding, it is no longer financially viable to continue.
It is therefore with monumental sadness that we announce that JackRabbit Events Ltd will cease to be. We are acutely aware of our obligations to our entrants, both legal and moral, and will email each directly over the coming week with the next steps. Whilst we are closing our doors & hanging up our hi-vis, we fully intend to ensure that each entrant receives their bespoke event medal at the very least, after all, that’s why you guys & gals enter our events in the first place – the amazing & unique bling !!
You will of course appreciate that we have over 1,000 entrants to deal with, so this process will take a little time, and your patience and understanding would be hugely appreciated. We unfortunately cannot answer individual emails, but we will keep everyone fully up to date on our social media channels.
But before we close, we wish to offer our heartfelt and enduring thanks, first to our marshals and volunteers – without their support, without their dedication to the sport and their encouragement, our events would not have been what they were.
A huge thank you goes out to the host venues – Beacon Hill Country Park and The National Forest Company without who’s support, we could never have staged the events in such amazing places.
A massive thankyou to our event sponsors, Everards Brewery for the delicious beer and Eat Real for the wonderful chips & crisps. Our goody bags were unrivalled in quality and content, even if we do say so ourselves.
We wish to offer our sincerest thanks and gratitude to the Whitwick Explorer Scouts who assisted in several our events, with parking, drinks stations and being generally amazing.
To Mr & Mrs Richardson – who kindly allowed us to park on their farmland at the Solstice Run.
And finally, to you, the runners, our loyal supporters – it’s been an absolute blast, thank you so very much for attending our events over the last 7 years. From humble beginnings we grew into something special. The support community around JackRabbit has been immense, we really do mean that. But all great things must and inevitably do come to an end.
Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
Stay safe one & all.
Andy & Wendy, Craig & Caroline
Team JackRabbit