Hi all, we assessed the route this morning and all afternoon and the River Thames which runs alongside the tow path part of our route has risen dramatically due to the recent rainfall across Weybridge, Surrey.

We spent all morning with our Health & Safety teams which have supported us from the launch of this event and provided great medical cover last year and we have decided that the increased risk level of this section of the route has risen above what we want to put in front of our runners.

The extra rainfall has made the tow path considerably more muddy and slippery and with the higher river level this section of the route has become more dangerous. We had plans to pulse the start and filter our runners down here smoothly so that the risk was reduced but over the last couple of days the river has reached such a state that the slightest chance of one of our runners falling or being pushed in is not a chance we want to take. The river has been flagged by the canoe club and they have warnings in place, we had the option to support with medical cover across the river in the form of medical boats however we feel the need to do this only highlights how severe the risk is.

We appreciate many of you would happily run down here however with the volume of runners we have we have to consider everyone’s safety and given that we attract a lot of first timers we believe postponing the race until this risk has reduced and we can provide a better and safer experience is worth much more value to everyone that has entered.

We had plans in place to protect everyone down this stretch but the risk has been made too great for what we believe everyone should be running this race in, please be aware this decision is heartbreaking for us and not made lightly. The frustrating aspect is that there is a good chance it would run smoothly however putting one runners race in serious danger is one too many for us.

We don’t want to cancel a race that everyone has trained and looked forward to so we are planning a proposed postponement or deferral for those that have entered with no need to enter or pay again, once the weather eases and we can reinforce the route to accommodate for the extra dangers the river has been producing then we will release a new date for later this year.

As a new and upcoming race we want to improve the experience year on year and we believe our runners this year deserve a safe and enjoyable run.

We have made this decision now to hopefully allow everyone enough time to change plans, we do apologise for the hassle caused and this is not something we wanted to do after the time and planning that goes behind this from such a small local team.

We appreciate everyone will have questions and points of view and this will impact everyone in different ways and I will myself (Matt) attempt to answer every single person who wishes to raise a concern or ask a question if you allow us the time to do so.

Thank you very much for your understanding and we look forward to seeing you on our new race day.