The weekly five-kilometre run/walk event has been reclassified by the state government.

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It was changed from a tier three public event to an outdoor physical recreation and sport which means a maximum of 20 participants.

Parkrun events in regional Victoria can't operate until those limits are increased.

Mast said he received an email from parkrun Australia on Thursday morning confirming the change.

"It caught me off guard, I wasn't expecting it at all," he said.

Mast said he'd got in the habit of watching for any changes which impacted tier three public events and didn't expect parkrun to be reclassified.

He noted the stop-start year was having an impact on his ability to get volunteers when parkrun is on.

The event director said he'd normally want the volunteer roster full a month ahead.

At the moment, it's been hard to get people to help out at the last minute.

"People have that trepidation that it's probably not going to be on next week anyway," he said.

In the meantime, runners and walkers can participate in 'not parkrun' which is a virtual concept.

Participants can run anywhere, anytime and submit their time to their parkrun online profile.

Mast would love to see Warrnambool be up there among the towns with the most 'not parkrun' results.

Otherwise, it's a matter of waiting to see if the event can return to its typical form.

"Now we've just got to watch as the restrictions get eased and see if this category of event can be relaxed," he said.

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