You’ve trained, you’ve planned, you’ve told work colleagues that you’re “just doing a 5K” while secretly hoping they’ll treat you like Kipchoge. You’ve even set your alarm early at the weekend for once. And then, the email comes: CANCELLED. Postponed. Storm Amy’s blowing a hoolie, the park’s underwater, or the council says the cones would take off down the dual carriageway.
It’s a kick in the teeth. But chin up, here’s how to survive when your big day doesn’t go ahead.
Step One: Accept it’s not your fault
Your 5K, 10K, parkrun or marathon isn’t happening. And that’s fine. Storm Amy didn’t check your Strava and decide to ruin your weekend. This is about safety. Nobody wants to be the one in the papers under the headline “Local runner carried to Comber on a gust of wind.”
Step Two: Eat the carbs anyway
Carb-loading isn’t just for marathons. If you had pasta, porridge before, or a big dirty fry lined up after your event, don’t waste it. Eat it guilt-free. You don’t need to run a huge number of miles to justify a scone. If anything, you’ll enjoy it more knowing you don’t have to justify with a race.
Step Three: Run your own “Not-a-Race”
Provided it's safe, there's heading out the door. If your parkrun’s off, do three loops round your estate and pretend the neighbours are marshals. If your 10K’s cancelled, jog to the local shop, buy a bottle of Lucozade, and call it hydration. Stick on your bib if you had one. Bonus points if you get your family to clap awkwardly as you finish at your driveway or on your street. Or if the weather is still too bad, venture to your local gym's treadmill.
Step Four: Channel the energy elsewhere
Runners get twitchy when races disappear. That buzz has to go somewhere. Tidy the shed. Hoover the car. Sort the Tupperware drawer that’s been haunting you since 2019. Or, if you’d prefer to stay in character, sit on the sofa in your race gear scrolling the Met Office and loudly announcing wind speeds like a one-man weather centre.
Step Five: Your training is not wasted
This is the big one. Regardless of whether you were building up to your first parkrun or your 10th marathon, all that training still counts. You’re fitter, stronger, and faster than you were when you started. The cancelled event doesn’t wipe that away. When the new date rolls around, you’ll be even sharper. And if there’s no new dat yet? Then you’ve still improved as a runner and you still get to lord it over your friends at work.
Step Six: Laugh about it (Eventually)
Right now, you’re gutted. But give it a week and you’ll be cracking jokes about Storm Amy wrecking your PB dreams. Running is full of setbacks, dodgy hamstrings, blisters the size of Fermanagh, and gels that taste like sadness. A cancelled event is just another one for the collection. Better to miss a medal than end up face-first in a puddle on the Ormeau Road.
Step Seven: Stick with the community
Don’t retreat into sulk mode. Share your disappointment, post your “Not-a-Race” run, message your running pals. Races and parkruns might get postponed, but the running community doesn’t. And when the start line does finally appear again, the atmosphere will be electric, because everyone knows what it took to get there.
Thought for the Day
The reality is that events get cancelled. Parks flood. Storms knock over cones. But the thing that matters, running itself, isn’t cancelled. So eat the carbs, do a DIY run, or call it “cross-training” when you wrestle your wheelie bin back from the neighbour’s hedge. The start line will be back soon enough. And when it is, you’ll be ready.