Out of an abundance of caution, we have made the decision to cancel Renton parkrun this weekend.

While we understand that the atmosphere of our event (relatively small group size, being outdoors, minimal physical contact, etc.) means it is a low-risk event, we prefer avoiding that risk completely this weekend. We would like to contribute to the containment of the spread of the virus rather than having to cancel for weeks on end should the problem escalate.

Additionally, although we know it's tempting to consider traveling to another parkrun this weekend since our event is cancelled, we hope that you will consider the potential impact of that action. Our decision to cancel is meant to help contain the potential spread of the virus, thus we do not wish to encourage travel that would take people even farther out of their normal sphere.

Instead, we encourage you to get your miles in locally in another way. Run or walk 5K on your treadmill, in your neighborhood or a local park and take some photos. Post them to our parkrun Facebook page or Instagram account (use #virtualRentonparkrun) or email them to us at this address and we'll post them to our website. We'll do a virtual parkrun instead! Instead of throwing each other high-fives on the course, let's all comment, like, and share good vibes virtually and encourage each other to continue our good physical activity habits to stay healthy.

We are also looking for someone who lives in Renton to volunteer to make two signs to post at Riverview Park and at the 405 underpass notifying people who miss our online communications that the event has been cancelled. If you can help, please let us know. We will tell you what to write on the signs. Thanks!

We will continue to monitor the situation and the recommendations of medical professionals and will make decisions on a weekly basis, so stay tuned on the status of parkruns in the coming weeks. We will post on our parkrun.us/Renton website, on our social media pages and send out a weekly email.

Thank you for your understanding!

Sincerely,

Cathryn Burby & Cam Kennedy
Renton parkrun Co-Event Directors

Yesterday (Friday) I loaded my foster pup in the car and drove down to the Cedar River Trail to scope out and measure an alternate course since part of our usual route is closed due to erosion from all of the recent rain. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we had a nice time soaking in the rays (me) and sniffing all of the smells (her).

We walked and measure all segments of the trail accessible via Riverview Park using Strava and I figured out that a "double rabbit ears" course would do the trick. We would start at the top of the Y, turn just shy of our usual turn-around, come back to the start line and do that segment again. Then we'd run across the top of the Y, past the finish and about .2 miles down the trail to the cones and sign indicating "Trail Closure Ahead", come back to the finish, and then do that out and back segment to the cones and sign one more time before finishing.

Well, I took for granted that the cones and sign from yesterday would still be there today. When our lead runner completed the 3rd segment and we sent him back out for his last lap, he said "I'm already at 3.05". The volunteers alerted me and I went down the trail a bit to check things out. Well, the city removed the sign and cones between yesterday afternoon and this morning and put up a semi-permanent sign on the speed limit post by our finish. Our participants were running all the way to the actual trail closure fence and logging extra mileage. OOPS!

As soon as I figured out the issue, volunteer Karen kindly walked the .2 miles to where the sign and cones had been and started turning people around in the correct spot. Those who had already gone out and back to the fence once, we told to cross the finish (as it was close enough to 5K).

During results processing I adjusted times for those who did extra mileage to calculate their actual 5K times using their pace. The results now should be accurate (enough). However, if you see something that's off, let us know (email renton@parkrun.com) and we'll adjust it.

Hey, we're a free event and we've had some curveballs lately. Thanks all for your patience and understanding.

In other news...it was also our Valentine's Day parkrun! We saw lots of Valentine's colors- red for "taken," orange for "in love with parkrun" and green for "available". We had mostly red and orange.

Volunteer Lynda brought some fun stickers to share with those who wanted a little bit of extra sparkle.

Megan and Karl were one of our couples of the day- both wearing red because they're "taken" by each other!

Koy wore orange to signify her love of parkrun.

Visitor Ben wore a green shirt- but it was his 250 shirt so we're not sure if he's actually available or just showing off his parkrun pride.

Regular participant and volunteer Ray brought along some family members today, including two grandsons who were more than happy to have their photos taken (as long as I showed them the photos right after). Matt, who is also one of our regulars, brought along his friend Kim. Did you know that parkrun mostly spreads through word of mouth?

The Logan family brought cupcakes to share at the finish line. They were very much appreciated and enjoyed. There were no survivors.

We had a few barkrunners who loved their time on the trail this morning. Baldr even cooperated and wore some sparkles for the full 5K.

Thanks to Amy, Gracelynn, Lynda, Brent and Karen for being on my volunteer crew today!

See YOU, yes, YOU next week for our Tutu parkrun on the 22nd!

We'll meet again at Riverview Park next week and we'll send out marshals for each turn next time- let us know if you want to volunteer for one of those spots!

With all of the recent rain, there has been significant erosion of the bank of the Cedar River between the dog park and Riverview Park and the city has closed a section of trail for repair. Therefore, we are back at our old location for the time being, starting at Riverview Park and using a modified course.

We don't know when the trail will re-open, as there is extensive work to be done. We'll communicate here, on our Facebook page, our Instagram account and through email (make sure to opt in through your parkrun profile).

The address for Riverview Park is 3201 Maple Valley Highway, Renton, WA 98058.