Coronavirus pandemic is changing the way we had been doing things. Once life starts getting normal, it won’t be normal as before. There will be new normal with significant changes to almost everything. Other sports will start without stadium viewers initially and with reduced spaced out viewers later. It will lose the revenue from ticket sales and related sponsors, but there will be increased viewer ship on TV and other online media. But for marathons, it is different; it is an event where spectators are actually important participants.Like Movie theatres and music concerts, it will have drastic impact on the way it will operate in future.

 

Fitness centres, like other in-door and contact heavy operations, will take time to get operational. Fitness enthusiasts will also prefer out-door activities like running. This will increase number of runners in post Covid-19 era. Marathons are the glue to the runners which keep them motivated and improve themselves and work harder. Everybody will be looking for Marathons to start.

 

The new marathon

But sadly for us marathons may not start soon in near future. Next Marathon event will not be there till at least end of 2020 or sometime in 2021. Governments all over the world will come up with new compliances for the crowded events like Marathon. This will make it tougher for event organisers.

 

Earlier Marathons needed mainly road traffic and security related clearances. In future there could be addition of clearances from health department, insurance companies and more.

 

Runners will need to wear masks during run. This will become a standard practice not just during Marathon but for any outdoor runs. Event organisers will provide masks to each runners. Masks will replace T-Shirts as mandatory giveaway with promotional printing.

 

The impact on the event day is organised under three parts: Pre-Run, During-Run and Post-Run.

 

Pre-Run

Current events are mostly organised in grounds, stadiums or on the roads. The new compliances will add to the space requirements of the events. The pre-event lineup will mostly be on the road. The runners will be allowed in the pre-event area after Temperature Scan and Hand Sanitisers. Any kind of gathering will be avoided. This will make runner keep moving till start-line and form socially distanced queues from the start line.

 

  • No gathering
  • Keep moving till Start line
  • Staggered lineups and flag-off to avoid fast runners crossing other slow runners

 

During Run

With strict pace based lineups and narrower queues, the runners will be spread out compared to current marathons.

 

  • Social Distancing — Runners will be advised to keep social distance between while following or crossing other runners.
  • Hydration Support — Volunteers will serve runners with gloves and masks. Plastic water bottles were on way out in favour of cups for hydration. Post Covid-19 this will get tricky as plastic bottles can be served quickly. There will be a scope for innovation here to avoid contacts and crowd at water stations.

 

Post Run

Post run experience for the runner will be managed with social distancing and continuous movement to avoid gathering at any point.

Typical flow of operations will be in following sequence:

  • Hand Sanitisers
  • Collect Medal
  • Collect hydration and snacks
  • Keep moving
  • Selfie booths on the way
  • Exit

For event organisers, along-with cleaning up of the venue; the organisers will need to disinfect it, pre & post event. Many other unforeseen activities & costs could be added to the event which we don’t know as of now.

 

This looks quite complex activity to organise a running event in post Covid-19 world. The small events with less than 1000 runners may not survive. Several such small events may get consolidated into few bigger events. Overall number of events may get drastically reduced. Major events will continue with added costs of compliance for event organisers and for runners.

 

Runners apprehensions

Runners will go through tremendous makeover till starting of the running events. For significant number of runners, the fear of Coronavirus will overshadow the fun of running marathon. This will impact the participation in the marathons.

 

Will that mean end-of-the road for marathons?

We are going through a lifestyle evolution. We cannot compare the lives before and after Covid-19. Technological innovations will drive the makeup of future events. It is very difficult to exactly predict nature of future events. As Darwin said it is not the strongest of the species , but the one that is most adaptable to change which survives. Current organisers will try to adapt to new demands of the time. There will be completely new players with new solutions backed by technology.

 

Newer versions of marathon will evolve over time before settling down on any structure and format. This is covered it in my next post Run Anywhere Marathons.