We are sad to announce that we have had to come to the decision to cancel the Poole Festival of Running 2021.
There are a few reasons that the committee have had to come to this decision. It became clear that putting the event on in June was too much of a risk, with many variables that may have led to the cancellation. We looked at moving the event into September or October but remembering that we said we would never put the event on the same days as another club run, not for profit events, it was very difficult to find a weekend that worked. When we thought we had found one, we were later told that there was another, non-running, event on in Poole. On top of that, when we put up a post about the event last month, we received many negative comments both on social media and other channels.
We are a volunteer-run event, with people giving up time to organise it months in advance. We must pay deposits to companies that may not survive into 2022 (we lost one deposit from 2020). The possibility of cancellation at the last minute was too much of a financial risk for a local running club. That and the negativity received from some people made us come to a decision that it would be best to cancel and put on the best PFoR ever on 11th & 12th June 2022.
Sadly the biggest loser in this decision is the Poole Hospital Charity. Each year we raise over £12000. Last year we hit that target with our Garden Marathon Challenge. This year we are thinking up a way that we can help raise some money… Watch this space.
If you had a deferred entry from 2020 we will automatically give you a place in the 2022 event. If you would like a refund please send an email to admin@poolefestivalofrunning.com. This may take longer than in the past due to the company that handled our entries going into receivership in December 2020.
Again, we apologise for the cancellation of the event but having explored every avenue and weighing up risks, we felt this was the only thing we could do.
See you in 2022 for the best event yet!!!