Scunthorpe Parkrun eager to welcome people back!

Scunthorpe Parkrun eager to welcome people back after the pandemic halted mass gatherings last March.

Parkrun is organised locally entirely by volunteers, with a core team of run directors, a volunteer coordinator and the event director, Tim Fox.

Tim said “We rely on about 25 volunteers for each run to keep everyone safe around the course. Volunteers are often runners who volunteer one every couple of months but can be family or friends or just great people who want to give their time to keep it running smoothly. We also have Duke of Edinburgh volunteers who use the experience as part of their award for volunteering.

“Covid has impacted Parkrun in different ways, many people have continued running but without direct friendly competition and interactive encouragement, others have not run and lost levels of fitness they had this time last year and lost some confidence as a result. Many runners have connections to the NHS and they saw parkrun as a release that they may have missed too over the passed year.”

The confirmed date for Parkrun to return is 5th June 2021, while some additional planning is required all should be ok restrictions wise – fingers crossed!

Scunthorpe Parkrun

Tim continued “Parkrun is not there to judge in any way, just encourage participation at all levels. It’s not a race, but a community of people who encourage each other.

“Scunthorpe parkrun averages 350 runners a week and attendances were increasing up to our last run on 14th March last year.

“Anyone can attend – 9 o’clock start every Saturday! Parkrun have a simple code that we ask everyone to read and adhere to when they sign up to keep everyone safe. Runners under 11 must be accompanied by an adult, dogs must be kept on a short lead and only one dog per runner.

Pushchairs also permitted but we ask people with pushchairs to start at the back where possible. We have had one wheelchair around the course but this is not really recommended. We also have a blind runner who runs with a guide runner every week.

Scunthorpe Parkrun

What are you waiting for, get involved and sign up now!

Parkrun is for all abilities: runners, walkers or anything in between – the first place is normally around 17minutes for the 5km course, the last one back is sways our Tail Walker volunteer who is not in a rush, whatever the weather!”

Runners are asked to sign up to register and bring a bar code to the run every week to have scanned to receive their times https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/ It is more important than ever to have a legible bar code to make it easy for our volunteers to scan them without getting too close!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scunnyparkrun

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