ACT's easing of community sport restrictions is unlikely to spell an end to the disruption to hundreds of fit families' Saturday morning routine for some time, according to parkrun ambassador Russell Crane.
Parkrun events across Canberra will likely be off the cards for "quite a few months" Mr Crane said.
The territory's seven five-kilometre weekly fun runs were cancelled due to coronavirus when the UK-based charity closed events globally in mid-March.
Mr Crane said the decision of when to bring back the fun runs were being made on a country-by-country basis.
He said Canberra parkrun enthusiasts would have to wait until it was safe for all Australians to participate in the running ritual before they were reinstated locally.
"We can't really open it up while there's any physical distancing requirements of any communities," Mr Crane said.
"While that is going to be disappointing for a lot of people we need to protect the safety of participants and volunteers."
Launched with the Lake Ginninderra route in Belconnen in 2012, parkruns in Canberra have been known to attract up to 500 people at a single event.
Mr Crane said organisers ran the risk of numbers soaring when it returned, given that parkrun devotees had been forced to forego the weekend fun for several weeks.
While he didn't reveal where, Mr Crane said several locations in the Jerrabomberra area and the northwest were currently being considered for additional events. A location for a junior's only parkrun was also being considered near the Australian Institute of Sport.
While young families and the city's fittest quickly spread out across the current courses, enforcing social distancing at the start and finish line would prove almost impossible.
The busiest route at Tuggeranong regularly seeing crowds of more than 400 over summer and Gungahlin parkrun numbers were not far behind.
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Rising running star Joshua Torley holds the record for the fastest five kilometre parkrun at Tuggeranong.
One of more than 8000 people to take part in the 366 Tuggeranong events, Mr Torley has held the record since 2017 when he whipped around the course in 14 minutes and 44 seconds.
The fastest female finisher from Tuggeranong was Leanne Pompeani with a 16 minutes and 20 seconds in March 2019.
Olympian Martin Dent holds the Mt Ainslie record with a time of 13 minutes and 42 seconds, while Commonwealth Games runner Emily Brichacek was the first female behind him in just over 15 minutes.
