Unlike other sporting events, Courir au Mans will not experience a return to normal this year. The race usually comprising a half-marathon and a 10 km will not take place at the end of May, for lack of volunteers.
The organizing association, Racing at Le Mans, recorded its cancellation at a general meeting. “We need between 150 and 160 people, in particular to secure all along the route, to avoid intrusions and to control the crossings” details Bernard Sciberras, the president of the association.
Consumers or actors?
“When we see that a competition like the Marathon of the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel does not take place either, in particular for a question of volunteers, we say to ourselves that the problem is broader”, notes the organizer.
The two years of interruption due to the Covid did not help to make contacts to renew the volunteers. Efforts are therefore based on an increasingly small core. “We have volunteers who are 88, 89 years old… they will not be able to continue indefinitely!”. And to relay them, the pool does exist, according to Bernard Sciberras. “Those who come to run cannot always be in a position of consumers. There are races almost every week, you can from time to time participate as a volunteer instead of running”. He calculated that if he had to pay for the time given by the volunteers, the registration would go from 10 euros to 70 or 80 euros.