Covid - the grey area!
It’s been a whole month since my last covid blog so of course the whole world has changed since then! The last post written just before Christmas was based on my (incorrect!) assumption I’d be sitting at home with the twins not at school and the country in some form of lockdown. Luckily I was wrong!
We are in an odd grey area now with Covid. Officially (as far as I understand it!) we are getting back to “normal” but with testing and isolations. That’s obviously a good thing in so many ways but with cases still much higher than at any other time where we’ve been “open” it puts me and you in a bit of a grey area. I’m going to try and make it a bit more black and white!
It bears repeating that the last 2 years have been a disaster for the business. There are others (maybe yourself) who will have been effected greatly and I genuinely feel for you. I’m not in this to screw people out of their money like some big corporate machine. I appreciate you coming to my events and the atmosphere has always been great, I’m trying to keep that, not tarnish it.
If you have Covid do not come to the event. I don’t need to explain why! Do the right thing and stay at home. I have a rather fair refund policy that allows transfers, at no cost, with at least 7-days notice. However, I know you can obviously get Covid after this! With that in mind I’m offering those of you that have covid and cannot run a 50% off voucher for a future event. Just let me know before the event - don’t email me a week later! I see that as us both doing our bit for the greater good (if that isn’t somewhat over doing it!!). You stay at home and don’t spread the disease and I effectively give you half the money back to lessen your financial loss.
I’m pretty sure that is more flexible and understanding than many other organisers and so hopefully welcome news. Do you need to send “evidence” that you’ve tested positive? No. I would assume that no one will be lying. I’ve tried to stand by all our runners over the last 2 years as you’ve stood by me and started entering events again. The horrific karma you’d get for lying about having Covid and effectively stealing from a micro-business isn’t worth £30!
There is also the worry that I’ll be impacted by Covid too (I have kids in primary school but I’ve avoided it so far!). I have now put back up processes in place that means if I get Covid an event should still be able to take place. Cancelling the Birch Challenge in 2021 was heart-wrenching and although unavoidable at the time something I’m looking to never repeat. I’ve got even more layers of back up in place for the weekend ultras. It’s pretty tricky to find someone to be a back up on a weekday with a days notice as I’m sure you can imagine! The anxiety I’m feeling with every cough or sniff in the lead up to events at the moment is somewhat overwhelming.
I obviously have no idea how long this will all last for but I’m hoping that if everyone plays their part we can make Big Bear events an escape from the real world for 6 hours (or a bit shorter if you’re doing a 10K!!). Somewhere to run some laps and eat some chocolate mice. A happy place for us all!
Any questions at all, as always do ask.