Dear Hoopsters, We're delighted to bring you the news you've all been waiting so patiently for! As of next week, we will be welcoming Senior members back to track.
We hope that everyone has been able to keep some running in their lives during lockdown and that it has helped you physically and mentally. We know some of you have been badly affected by COVID-19 and wish you a speedy return to running.
We’d like to set out our plans for restarting track sessions on Tuesday 28th July while following guidelines set out by the government and England Athletics (EA). We will review our strategy each week.
EA states that groups must be no more than six people; either six athletes or five athletes plus one coach and social distancing with mitigating measures must be followed. This has not changed with guidelines published on Friday 17th July.
There will be two sessions on Tuesdays and one session on Thursdays (overlap of timing on Tuesday sessions one and two is intentional, and will be explained in session details)
Tuesday session one
6:00 - 7:15
Tuesday session two
6:45 - 8:00
Thursday session
6:45 - 8:00
WSC Pass
In order to take part in these sessions, you must have a valid annual QPH pass to Willesden Sports Centre (WSC). If you're not sure whether your pass is still valid, please don't worry. We will shortly be sending more information about how to renew your pass plus guidelines issued by WSC for the safe use of the centre.
Sessions
Each session will be for three groups of athletes running at a similar pace within each group.
Group one
Coach for all groups plus five athletes
Groups two and three
Six athletes (including assistant coach or run leader) in each
It is essential that you book your place. This is so that we can comply with social distancing and 'Track and Trace'.
Registration
Each week, a registration form will be sent out via email asking for your name, a first, second, third choice of session and an indicator of pace. Pace will be an estimate based on an effortful 5k but can be amended each week.
The online form will be sent out each week on a Wednesday morning. You must reply by Friday midnight and you will be contacted with your session time on Monday. This will include details about the structure of the sessions, new style track etiquette and the measures that will be in place.
To recap:
You must register in order to take part in a session
We are not able to include athletes who turn up on spec, hoping to take part. Please do not ask the coaches to make exceptions.
We will do our best to give you your first choice of session
We can’t guarantee your first choice so please be understanding and flexible where possible. We will look at rotating group timings each week.
Please do not swap or change sessions with other athletes.
Sessions will have been carefully grouped by pace with Track and Trace details collected for WSC.
Spaces are precious
If you have reserved a place, please make sure you come. Others may have missed out. Please call Gildas by Monday evening if you need to cancel so that your place can be reallocated if possible.
What next?
Look out for the registration form that will be emailed out tomorrow and follow instructions above. Look out for another newsletter which will provide WSC Guidelines and a link for renewing your pass.
Please be patient and bear with us as we all get used to this new way of doing things. We hope to accommodate everyone and will allocate the places as fairly as possible.
We know you will have questions! In the first instance, please re-read this message carefully, we hope it makes sense. If however, you do have further questions, please get in touch with your queries
Looking forward to seeing you back at track soon!