Focus is on Warriors Run 2021
LAST Thursday should have seen 300 runners descend on The Strand Bar in Strandhill, as they have done for many years prior, to register onsite to take part in The 2020 Warriors Run.
Then on Friday a further 800 persons should have logged online to grab a spot for the annual famous mountain race. Unfortunately both The Strand and the online registration site remained closed as the 36th Warriors Run, which was due to be held on August 29th, was cancelled like many other local and national events due to public health concerns surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.
Public Relations Officer of the Organising Committee, Micki Murray takes up the story. “It was a tough call for us to make (to cancel) as it was early in April and at that stage there was no reopening road map or any strategy to outline what the state of affairs would look like at the end of August.
“Even now things could change in a heartbeat. But we had to make our decision on cancellation early for a number of reasons, logistics being the first.
“We hire in huge amounts of equipment to the beachfront for Warriors Run Day from marquees to portaloos to road barriers and we were wondering would suppliers remain open and if they did could they deliver their services at the end of August.
“Also a lot of runners coming from overseas would usually start booking hotels and flights in March or April, we were getting queries from as early as February about where to stay and what do.
“So, as we know now, there are many travel restrictions and the 2 week self isolation process on entering the country would put paid to people flying in for a weekend.
“But that’s a recent development and we as an Organising Committee didn’t know that would happen back in April.
“However we felt that even if things went exceptionally well and the virus was contained early, could we justify bringing 1200 runners and another 2000 spectators into a small village without risk?
“So with the safety of our neighbours foremost in our minds and also our fabulous volunteers and of course the participants themselves, we decided it was not worth it for this year.”
And so what lies ahead for the Warriors Run race?, Micki was asked. “It’s a well established, well loved race, a break of one year won’t do any damage to its reputation and the feedback we have gotten from people already is that they will be hungrier to take part next year.
“The Committee will also be eager to come back with a bang and produce another top quality event with hopefully even more bells and whistles,” says Micki.
So the hardworking committee can take a breather now? “Oh God no”, laughs Micki, “if we get comfortable we’ll get complacent. We hope to get back to our Festival roots later on in the year and organise some sort of small event, nothing to do with running probably but something fun to keep people’s spirits up.
“We’ll be keeping a close eye on what the Health Committee and the Government tells us we can and can’t do and when the time is right and safe, we’ll happily do our part to help bring Strandhill back to the lively community it is.
“We’ll play our part and be delighted to support those who kindly supported The Warriors Run down through the years”.
And although the Queen Maeve Warriors may not be visiting her on Knocknarea this year, she can rest assured it’s just a temporary hiatus and The Warriors Run Committee will be doing their best to make the 2021 event a celebratory one.