The new Run Surrey Run won’t get off the ground this year as planned, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Event organizers have cancelled the inaugural 5K/10K walk/run set for Sunday, June 7, with the start/finish at Holland Park and a route through the Surrey Centre area, and moved it to a year from then, on June 6, 2021.
“The postponement was a very difficult one and we share the disappointment alongside those that have keenly expressed joy to see the run materialize in Surrey,” event chair Gurjinder K. Bhurji said Monday (March 30) in a news release posted to runsurreyrun.com.
“However, our commitment to the health and welfare of all was our primary guiding principle and hence the decision to postpone the event to a later date.”
Bhurji said Balsar Community Foundation “decided to act with social responsibility based on the increased spread of COVID-19 and following the recent order from the British Columbia Provincial Health Officer to ban all public gatherings that exceed 50 people.”
In February, lead organizers Bhurji and Hardip Jhaj, both avid runners, said they couldn’t wait to run the streets of Surrey during in the inaugural Run Surrey Run, which they had hoped would draw anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 participants.
• READ MORE: New ‘Run Surrey Run’ event on downtown city streets this spring.
In 2018 Bhurji launched a survey to gauge public interest in launching a Surrey version of Vancouver’s Sun Run, and she says the response was very positive, especially from those in the local running community.
Key to the new event, the women say, is a road circuit that showcases Surrey’s downtown area, and the involvement of both walkers and runners.
Two years in the planning, Run Surrey Run involves a five-kilometre street course to the west of Holland Park. The rectangular, north-south route runs along University Drive, from 108th Avenue as far south as 97th Avenue, and as far west as 132nd Street. Those who sign up for the 10K event will twice complete the 5K loop.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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