Hi, new user and a daft question im sure: twice now ive gone to the gym, set up my tablet with zwift, waited for a race to start which shows users, get excited to run with people. 2mins before the race i hit the ‘start run’ button, then im at the start line alone and nothing happens, waited a few mins, 0 people there.
Am i not meant to join before it starts? Or are the 10 people who signed up for the event just not actually racing? 
I don’t run but I ride
Usually if you are alone on Zwift, it is frequently a sign of an Internet disconnect.
When you join the run, you should see all the runners hanging around the starting line, some “running”, others stretching (depending on if their treadmill is reporting data). Most of the ZLDR events have runners there 5 minutes before the event, so if you join one of those and see nobody, there is probably a connection issue. My suggestion, try it at home, just “Skip” the pairing screen and join an event, you don’t need a working treadmill for that, you’ll just watch them all run away at the start.
Hi, @Martin_Bryant, welcome to Forums! I’m Francisco from Zwift Support
Stoked you gave Zwift a shot! Hope you have a blast here.
If you have disconnected your device from the Internet. This will hide all other Zwifters from your view and take you off their radar as well. Generally, it’s quite straightforward to turn off the Internet connection on most devices—just a click or two on Mac, PC, iOS, or Android will do the trick. Which could be one of the reasons why this is happening.
In this situation, it’s quite the opposite since you’re eager to see the riders. I suggest taking a look at this article: Issues with Your Internet Connection.
Furthermore, upon reviewing your account, I found 3 BLE disconnection issues on December 23, 2024, coming from the Zwift RunPod. You should check all the troubleshooting steps in the breakdown in this article: BLE and ANT+ Interference Troubleshooting Tips.
its probably an issue with the gyms wifi, they probably have a mesh network setup and it is causing connection issues for Zwift, not allowing traffic through or something like that.