20 Apr 20 by James Elson

2020 SDW100 and WW50km Postponement

As of Monday 20th April 2020:

The 2020 South Downs Way 100 has been postponed to the weekend of 7th-8th November 2020. 
The 2020 Wendover Woods Night 50km has been postponed to the 14th November 2020. Alongside the 50 mile. 1700 start.

The ongoing coronavirus/ Covid-19 pandemic has result in obvious challenges for any events in the near future and unfortunately these two events have succumbed to the continued issues we all face. The reasons for the postponement of these two events are as follows:

- Inability to guarantee being able to staff and volunteer the event to ensure minimum safety standards.
- Loss of numerous check point locations and/ or start finish locations for both events.
- Retraction of permission for the route/ course in some or all areas

The questions that may flow from this information should all be answered within the updated race pages for each event but to summarise the key ones here for ease:

Q. I had an entry to one of the above races, what happens now?

A. If you want to race on the revised date, you need take no further action. Your entry will be carried forward to the new date. We will see you on the start line in November. 

Q. I can't make the new date, what are my options?

A. You may cancel your place any time up until 4 weeks prior to race date for a 70% refund. 

Q. How long do I have to decide if I want to keep my place?

A. Ultimately as long as you want up until race day, but for the 70% refund you must cancel before 4 weeks prior to race day, so up to early/ mid October.

Q. I don't want to or can't make the revised date, why am I not eligible for a full refund?

A. Please see full details here

Q. I was entered for both the Wendover Woods Night 50km and the Wendover Woods 50 mile, they are now on the same date - what are my options?

A. Both races take place on Saturday 14th November. The 50 mile starts at 0930 and the 50km starts at 1700, joining the course of the 50 mile 7.5 hours in to the race. It will therefore not be possible to run both races. You may cancel either of your entries for a full refund.  

Q. Are there any other changes apart from the date to the two events you mention?

A. Yes. SDW100: Expanded mandatory kit list. No kids 1 mile event. WW50km: Expanded mandatory kit list. New start time of 1700, cut off 0230 Sunday - the race will still take place entirely in darkness.

Remaining 2020 events

The first two events on the 2020 calendar are now: 

4th July: NDW50
8th-9th August: NDW100

We are keeping these two races in the diary for a number of reasons. Firstly, all of the permissions to stage these events remain in place - including the landowners, course, and start/ finish locations. Secondly, these are races where we anticipate approximately 230-250 starters. If things have opened up in the UK by that stage, we are able to consider options like remote registration, wave starts and adaptation of check point and finish procedures to drastically reduce any group size. We are not suggesting this will be necessary, or even something that could be accepted or permitted. But there are further options open to us with these two events that are not currently possible with the SDW100 and WW50km. Lastly, runners in the UK where 97% of our entrants hail from, are still able to train consistently and sufficiently under government guidelines, for races of this nature.

For any questions as always, please simply email us by clicking here. We will come back to you as soon as we can, we may initially be inundated so please bear with us a few days whilst we get to everybody.

Thank you to all of you, runners and volunteers for your understanding.

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