Five of Britain’s events organisers have joined forces to create Get Britain Running. This is a new partnership that ‘aims to facilitate collaboration and innovation to support the wider mass participation industry through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.’
Made up of Front Runner Events, Running High Events, Rees Leisure, MK Marathon and RUNFEST, Get Britain Running is founded on three core principles, which provide the driving force behind all activities carried out by the partnership: improving health, raising awareness and supporting charities.
Improving health
Get Britain Running encourages people to get active, whilst also promoting the benefits of exercise in combating the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and obesity.
‘The campaign encourages the government and local authorities to place the promotion of exercise at forefront of the recovery plan from COVID-19, and to review restrictions on races in line with consistent evidence of the low risk of transmission of COVID-19 at outdoor participation sporting events.’
In the meantime, a series of officially-licensed virtual events from Get Britain Running’s event organisers will ‘enable people from all walks of life to improve their exercise habits by working towards a goal and earning rewards and medals.’
Runners will be able to share their progress and find training tips on realbuzz Club, the official online community platform for Get Britain Running
Raising awareness
Get Britain Running aims to research, document and circulate supporting evidence and guidelines for enabling COVID-19-compliant participation sporting events. The campaign argues that…
‘Current guidelines need to be amended in line with consistent evidence of the low risk of transmission of COVID-19 at outdoor participation sporting events, and expanded to ensure events of all sizes are covered, empowering race organisers to provide participants with safe and secure environments with minimal impact on the race day experience.’
The partnership will also raise wider awareness of the challenges faced by the industry, lobbying for action and financial support from the sport’s governing bodies and the government.
Supporting charities
Get Britain Running aims to provide support and give charities a platform to raise awareness of the challenges they are facing. A series of fundraising initiatives will be implemented through virtual events to give charity supporters an avenue to continue their fundraising in the temporary absence of physical events.
The Get Britain Running charity programme will be facilitated by the team at Realbuzz Group. Great Britain Running will incorporate a website and virtual events series created by Realbuzz. Runners can sign up to officially licensed virtual versions of events from all Get Britain Running event organisers, with a ‘unique series medal on offer for runners who complete all five events.’
Realbuzz Group also provides runners with training tips through their realbuzz Club platform, which provides community tools, training plans and Q&A podcasts for users.
Get Britain Running is currently utilising the #GetBritainRunning hashtag on social media.
