Blow for Falkirk's pavement pounders as plug is pulled on Great Scottish Run

The popular run was due to take place in Glasgow on Sunday, October 4, but due to the “continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic” organisers the Great Run Company and Glasgow Life took the difficult decision to axe it.

Runners who had a place in either the 10k or half marathon distance in this year’s event will be given the option to roll it over to the next Great Scottish Run, which is provisionally scheduled to take place on Sunday, October 3, 2021, or receive a refund of their entry fee.

Organisers are now in the process of contacting everyone who had signed up to this year’s event to give them further details and the options available to them.

The associated children’s event, the Junior and Mini Great Scottish Run, due to take place on Saturday, October 3 this year are also cancelled. All runners in this event will receive a full refund of their entry fee.

Great Run Company chief executive Paul Foster said: “We understand this will be disappointing news to all those who were planning to take part, but the safety of participants, spectators and of all those associated with the staging of the events is always our number one priority.

“Over the past few months we have worked hard to try and find a way to stage the Great Scottish Run while observing social distancing rules, and most importantly, not adding to the burden of public services.

“However, as things stand, and even as the situation improves, it's not going to be possible to meet these goals with any certainty, and so we have concluded the best course of action is to cancel this year’s event.

“We are delighted to be able to offer our runners the opportunity to roll their place over and we look forward to welcoming them back in 2021. We want to thank all of our participants and partners for their continued support and understanding.”

Many of people taking on the challenge would have been doing it for charity – at at time charity donations are more important than ever before.

Mr Foster said: “Event day is only a small part of the challenge our runners take on, they put in a huge amount of preparation and training in the weeks and months before.

“They should be able to celebrate that achievement. We encourage those who were signed up to run the event to recognise all the hard work they have already put in and consider still passing on the money raised to the charity if possible.”