Loveday Writing

I’ll write a blog post on how COVID-19 has affected my fun running practises and future plans, but this post will focus on the first run that was affected—the Queenstown Marathon.

I registered for the Queenstown Marathon as the first stop for my yet-to-be-fully-planned international fun running tour, which will be called Fun Walking Not Running Around the World. I wanted the Queenstown Marathon to be my first stop as the course is surrounded by a beautiful landscape. I registered for the Queenstown Marathon on 12 December 2019 as I knew it was a popular event that would sell out quickly, this year’s event is scheduled for 21 November 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of several types of public events, which includes fun runs, however at this point in time this year’s Queenstown Marathon is still going ahead. However I received an email a couple of weeks ago from the organisers, providing me with the option to either defer my registration to next year’s Queenstown Marathon or an event credit to be used on any of the IRONMAN Group’s events in Australia, due to the border restrictions possibly preventing Australian entrants from being able to attend this year’s event. As I would still like to participate in this event one day and with the continuing uncertainty of COVID-19 outbreaks and its affects on international travel, I decided to defer my registration.

I appreciate that the organisers gave me this option—I didn’t lose the money I paid for the registration and I had the option of what future event I can participate in.

I’m looking forward to (hopefully) completing my first international fun run in Queenstown next year.

Picture via Google Images.