Insurance for doing a parkrun (and a local 5k) in USA

SteveyJC

Hello Everyone,

Being someone very paranoid about insurance, I'd like to do parkrun with my daughter in the USA on our trip there in a few months. Upon reading my Travel Insurance policy (Direct Line) it appears that whilst running is ok as a sport, competing in an event or race is not included. Now, our 5k time is about 35mins (i.e. slow), but would still like to be covered in the event of something bad happening. Not sure if the intention of this exclusion is more for marathons or serious competitors etc?  Any thoughts?

Grumpy_chap

SteveyJC said:

Hello Everyone,

Being someone very paranoid about insurance, I'd like to do parkrun with my daughter in the USA on our trip there in a few months. Upon reading my Travel Insurance policy (Direct Line) it appears that whilst running is ok as a sport, competing in an event or race is not included. Now, our 5k time is about 35mins (i.e. slow), but would still like to be covered in the event of something bad happening. Not sure if the intention of this exclusion is more for marathons or serious competitors etc?  Any thoughts?

Interestingly there was a thread recently that covered travel insurance and sporting participation which the OP may find interesting:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6638350/why-do-so-many-travel-insurance-products-not-cover-competitions-racing/p1

The thing here is that, with Parkrun, you do not register for a specific even in advance.  You have to register in general and obtain the bar code but no actual event knows you are there and participating until your barcode is scanned at the finish.  By the time you reach the finish, one assumes nothing "bad" will happen.  If something "bad" did happen before the finish, how would it be established that you were taking part in the Parkrun and not just going for a casual run in that park and, coincidentally, there happened to be a Parkrun?

The second 5k event is possibly one that needs to be specifically registered to and chip-timed, so claiming that you had just gone for a jog and the event happened to be in progress would not fly.

It must be possible to obtain insurance at reasonable rates to cover running events, it really is not that rare to take part in a running event and one does consider it likely that this lady had some cover in place:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1j821gj41jo

SteveyJC

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. Appreciate your point of view. I'll start searching online for some options!

Grumpy_chap

A search on the string "travel insurance marathon" returns several products, including one that offers a "bolt on" to any regular travel insurance.  There is also a link to another chat thread (which may not be reliable) suggesting that standard travel insurance covers any distance under marathon distance so long as not entering as an "Elite" class runner.  
Are you Steve Cram?

user1977

Park Run do make a thing of pointing out that they are not races, they are timed runs. What insurers would make of that I don't know, but there's no prize or (official) glory for coming first. 

Grumpy_chap

user1977 said:

Park Run do make a thing of pointing out that they are not races, they are timed runs. What insurers would make of that I don't know, but there's no prize or (official) glory for coming first. 

You are correct.

However, Parkrun also closed the events in France because of legal issues, stating:
"Whilst we are not affiliated to French Athletics, and do not consider ourselves a competitive sporting event, the similarities between 5k races and parkrun events are clear"
https://blog.parkrun.com/fr/2024/05/16/parkrun-france-update/

An insurer might well take a similar line to the Parkrun interpretation of the events (not) held in France and extrapolate that to any Parkrun anywhere.

Aretnap

If you are unsure, your best option is to phone up Direct Line and ask, or use their online webchat. If they say that you are covered to do a Parkrun, you are entitled to rely on that later.

Keep a note of the time of the call and the name of the person you spoke to, or take a screenshot of the web chat, so that you have something to refer back to in the unlikely event that you have any trouble down there line.

huckster

Aretnap said:

If you are unsure, your best option is to phone up Direct Line and ask, or use their online webchat. If they say that you are covered to do a Parkrun, you are entitled to rely on that later.

Keep a note of the time of the call and the name of the person you spoke to, or take a screenshot of the web chat, so that you have something to refer back to in the unlikely event that you have any trouble down there line.

Exactly, phone Direct Line.

I suspect the park run will mean adding on sports activities for an extra premium, but it may be cheaper than buying a specialist policy.