Summer sporting highlight pulled from calendar
Amateur athletes from East Finchley, Muswell Hill and Highgate could have run their last race together after organisers of the annual Race the Neighbours event announced that the event is cancelled for the foreseeable future.
Around 450 runners have come together in Cherry Tree Wood in June for seven years to compete in the friendly 10k race to Alexandra Palace and back. The fastest collective postcode claims the coveted Cherry Tree Cup.
But the volunteer organisers have told the hundreds who have already signed up for this year’s race that they’ve run out of time to organise it and are sadly pulling out of future years too.
Clash of dates
We reported in December that the Race had been forced to move its planned 2024 date after inadvertently clashing with the 50th anniversary of the East Finchley Festival on Sunday 23 June thanks to a mix-up by Barnet Council’s events coordinators The Event Umbrella.
It would have been impossible for both events to be held in Cherry Tree Wood on the same day so Race the Neighbours agreed to seek another date but it now seems that will not happen.
Local resident Avi Freeman, one of the founding organisers, said it was a sad decision to have to make. He said: “It looks like 2023 will have been our last race, at least for the time being. The time pressures involved for all of us have led us to the reluctant conclusion that we need to hang up our organising shoes for now. There will be no Race the Neighbours 2024.
Adventure
“Way back in the summer of 2015 we began an adventure, establishing a new 10k in our own corner of north London. In the nine years since then we’ve held seven summer 10k races, welcomed hundreds of runners, learned a lot about staging events, and put a smile on lots of faces including our own.
“We’ve raised and donated more than £8,000 to local charities. And we’ve just loved taking over Cherry Tree Wood for the day and turning it into the headquarters of London’s friendliest 10k.”
Avi added that they weren’t completely ruling out a return in the future. “In the meantime we’d be very happy to talk to anyone that is interested in the idea of perhaps taking on the mantle of organising a local 10k in this area that uses the same route. If that’s you, then please do get in touch.”
